Heavy gales accompanied by rain lashed several parts of Anantapur district with Anantapur city, Gooty, and Kalyandurg suffering the worst on Thursday night and people spending sleepless nights in most areas due to power outage.
Big trees got uprooted and fell on vehicles parked in streets. A car and several two-wheelers in Anantapur city were damaged and the Anantapur Municipal Corporation was doing its best to clear them till Friday evening. Power lines got snapped at hundreds of places and electricity could be restored to only 50% of the affected areas by Friday morning and 70% by 1 p.m., said APSPDCL officials.
According to them, eight transformers were damaged, 94 Low Tension Power poles got uprooted along with 52 of 11KV poles and two 33KV poles. The workmen were toiling hard from Thursday evening to ensure power supply was restored to government hospitals, and essential/emergency establishments. Total loss to power infrastructure was put at ₹11.40 lakh.
Worst affected colonies
Court Road, Third Line and some colonies in Old City were the worst affected in Anantapur city. District Collector visited some of the affected colonies in the early hours of Friday.
The ARS Rekulakunta Agrometeorologist S. Malleswari Sadhineni said it was a local system that caused rain and gales, but a trough exists from Vidarbha to Tamil Nadu across Rayalaseema. There was a warning from the IMD just before the rainfall began and gales of upto 60 kmph were experienced, but there was not enough time to take any precautionary measures.
The daily district average rainfall was recorded at 4.4 mm with Raptadu recording 62.4 mm, Gummgatta - 46.4, Kammadur - 36.4, Peddavadagur - 30.4, Gooty - 27.6, Pamidi - 15.2, Kanekal-13.2, Anantapur - 8.2 mm, Amarapuram - 7.2, Amadagur - 5.2, Nallamada - 4.2, Gudibanda - 3.8, Narpala - 3.4, Roddam - 3.2, Singanamala - 2.4, Agali - 2.4, Kundurpi - 1.6, Kadiri - 1.6, Atmakur - 1.2, Guntakal - 1.2, and Kudair - 1.0 mm.
