Heavy rains death toll rises to nine

Hyderabad, March 6 : The death toll due to heavy rains and hailstorms in the State touched nine on Thursday with two more deaths being reported in the last 24 hours.

On Thursday, some of the mandals in six Districts of Telangana region – Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy, Hyderabad, Medak, Nizamabad and Adilabad, two districts in Rayalaseema – Ananthapur and Kurnool and Visakhapatnam district in coastal Andhra have received rainfall.

Belluguppa of Anantapur district with 58 mm rains was on the top followed by Dharur of Mahabnagar with 52 mm and Yellareddy of Nizamabad with 41.6 mm rainfall.

Of nine deaths, six have been reported from Warangal, two in Anantapur and one in Nizamabad. A total of 536 houses were damaged, mostly in Medak district. Agriculture crops spread across 72,669 hectares and horticulture crops over 27,849 hectare were also damaged across the State.

The Met Department predicted that rain or thunder showers, with or without hail, would occur at a few places over Telangana and Rayalaseema and rain or thundershowers would occur at isolated places over Coastal Andhra Pradesh.  INN