Hyderabad deluged, wrecked & blacked out after heavy rain

HYDERABAD: Sunday’s midsummer thunderstorm left a trail of devastation in the city with trees uprooted, electricity lines wrecked, and streets waterlogged.
The 5cm intense rainfall in GHMC within a 24-hour span has left several stretches battered and inundated. The scale of destruction can be gauged from mounting complaints on GHMC helpline between Sunday night and Monday morning. Municipal teams cleared 288 flooded sites and 60 uprooted trees.
Major damage was reported from Nallakunta for a second consecutive day with scores of submerged cars on streets. As the storm uprooted trees at several places, GHMC’s Disaster Response Force teams were deployed to clear streets of 60 fallen trees between Sunday night and Monday morning in Gudimalkapur, Kukatpally Y Junction, Malakpet, Uppal, Mettuguda, Shaikpet, LB Nagar, Sanath Nagar and near the Assembly.
“Blackouts were triggered after trees collapsed on live wires. We cleared all fallen trees by early morning and power was restored within a couple of hours,” a senior EV&DM official told TOI.
The deluge also disrupted power supply in pockets of Nallakunta, Yakutpura, Chandrayangutta, Begumpet, Kukatpally, Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills.
Apart from power woes, commuters travelling from Hitec City towards Jubilee Hills and Abids were stuck on Road Number 45, Biodiversity Flyover, Lakdikapul, Masab Tank, Nampally and many other places due to waterlogging. “It took more than one-and-half hours to reach Begumpet from Biodiversity Flyover in Gachibowli. The problem was compounded by vehicles stuck inundated routes. We had to wait for almost 45 minutes after crossing Durgam Cheruvu cable bridge,” P Vamsi Krishna, a techie and a resident of Kundanbagh told TOI.