An unending cycle of floods and grief Premium

Shaik Sharif recounts surviving a devastating flood in Khammam district, highlighting the tragic impact of unprecedented rainfall.

Shaik Sharif tightly clasped the hand of his terrified mother, clinging to the roof of their crumbling house as the relentless floodwaters of the Palair River swirled around early last Sunday. “We were stranded on the rooftop for nearly five hours, but then the flood overwhelmed us. The structure we stood on eventually gave way, taking my parents away with it,” recalls the visibly shaken 19-year-old youth of Nayakangudem village in Kusumanchi mandal of Khammam district.

A second-year B.Tech student of a private college in Khammam, Sharif miraculously survived with the help of locals when the river wreaked havoc on parts of the village on September 1, 2024. Caught unawares by the sudden, ferocious flooding, Sharif and his family had climbed onto the roofing sheet of their house, situated just 500 meters from the Palair surplus weir, in a desperate bid for safety following relentless rain the previous night.

“A drone flew overhead and dropped life jackets around Sunday noon, rekindling hopes of survival but things took a turn for the worse an hour later when three rooms of our house got washed away. Close to 1.30 p.m., we lost all hope. The floodwaters showed no signs of abating and we were pulled down,” Sharif recalls.

In the blink of an eye, his father, Shaik Yakub, was swept away and moments later, his mother, Saidabee, followed. With the aid of locals and police, Sharif managed to reach a partially submerged stretch of the old Khammam-Suryapet highway, battling the fierce torrent.

The couple’s death has left Sharif and his elder brother Shaik Yusuf, a B.Tech final year student, devastated.

A close relative, who did not wish to be identified, said that a timely rescue operation could have saved their lives. But local officials maintain that though helicopter services were requisitioned, choppers based in State capital Hyderabad and in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh could not take off due to adverse weather conditions.

Last Sunday (September 1, 2024), Kusumanchi mandal recorded 315.6 mm of rainfall, and the water level in Palair reservoir rapidly rose to 32 feet as against its full reservoir level of 23 feet. Flash floods in the Munneru and Akeru rivers, triggered by heavy rainfall in their catchment areas on Saturday night, caused widespread havoc across Khammam and Mahabubabad districts. The Munneru swelled to 36 feet, its highest level in decades, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.