Hyderabad rains: Better off in hotels in `Hi-Tec' Hyderabad

Software engineer Ashish Samyal has been spending his days holed up in a hotel room in Kukatpally , along with his wife, two children aged four and seven, and an ailing father. This despite owning a posh, lake-facing home inside Lake Ridge apartments in Nizampet.
While the heavy downpour initially flooded the bylanes in his area, things took a turn for the worse on Wednesday evening when water from the adjoining Amber Cheruvu overflowed and gushed into their homes.Describing the chaos, Samyal said, “The cellar, where residents park vehicles, was the first to get flooded. By 2 am, we realised the situation was getting out of hand and moved out all the vehicles. The cellar is where the electric meters are. The stagnant water also left sumps in the area clogged and polluted, making it impossible to use the water.“ His transport options too were knocked out.
To avoid balancing himself on a narrow strip of the building's boundary wall in order to get to work or help his children get to school, Samyal checked in to a hotel on Thursday .“My aged father who was already suffering from a leg fracture was left alone in the house. When we found that it was possible to use the balcony of a house on the first floor to step onto the roof of the next build ing, I took my family to a hotel,“ said Samyal. Other residents followed suit or took refuge at relatives' homes.
Inundated homes and waist-deep water is a common sight in Miyapur and KPHB Colony as well.
Gaurav Kumar, who has been showing up at work more than an hour late for the past week, thanks to water-logged road outside his house near Sai Baba Temple in Attapur, decided to pack some essentials and head to his friend's house in Gachibowli, where his office is, on Thursday . “Cab drivers flatly refuse to enter waterlogged streets fearing damage to engine,“ said Kumar.