After rains lashed Ranga Reddy district of Telangana for two days straight, Andhra Pradesh experienced heavy rains that affected normal life on Thursday.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed Chief Secretary SP Tucker and district collectors to evacuate people from low-lying areas to safer places. He also instructed relevant authorities to make sure that human and infrastructural loss is minimum.
"It had been raining since 11 pm but in the early hours, between 4 and 8 am, there was record rain," district collector Kantilal Dande told NDTV.
Districts like Guntur, Kurnool and Kakinada were severely affected with water-logging and vehicular traffic being disrupted.
Towns in Guntur, including Chilakaluripet, Gurazala, Narsaraopet, Piduguralla, Sattenapalli and Tenali faced a heavy onslaught of rain causing major flooding in the areas. The downpour also affected traffic movement between Hyderabad and Guntur. Guntur district bore the maximum brunt of the rain with people being rescued with the help of ropes.
Palnadu Express, headed to Hyderabad, was forced to stop at Reddygudem village in Rajupalem mandal due to the rains. Another train, Falaknuma Express, was stopped at Bellamkonda, while Macherla passenger train was stuck at Piduguralla.
Water in the Basavannavagu and Yerravagu streams in Guntur surged leading to inundation of villages nearby.
Some towns in Kurnool, including Mahanandi, also faced heavy rain in the last 24 hours. A lake called Paleruvagu near Koilakuntla village in the district overflowed and flooded villages in the outskirts.
The incessant rain also affected traffic on the Nandyal-Ongole Highway.
Two lakh cusecs of water was released into the sea from the Doleshwaram barrage after the East Godavari district also received rain.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Ranga Reddy district of Telangana had been inundated and alerts were issued in many low-lying areas after rains that carried on for more than 48 hours.
Meanwhile, Mumbai recorded 84.7 mm rainfall, while western suburbs recorded 95.89 mm and eastern suburbs registered 76.27 mm rainfall, according to civic body weather stations. The city faced water-logging and flooding in many areas.
The Santa Cruz observatory received 104 mm of rainfall in a span of 24 hours, Skymet weather said.
Apart from traffic jams, as many as 200 potholes have cropped up between Dadar and Sena Bhawan.
"We are happy to inform that all lakes have reached up to the full supply level (FSL) marks and we won't be having water scarcity for entire year," a senior official of BMC's Hydrological department was quoted as saying by NDTV.
