HYDERABAD, Aug 21: Sudden heavy rains preceded by dust storm and strong winds caught people unawares in Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and their adjoining towns and villages on Tuesday, with no reports from any part of any major damage to life and property.

Meteorological office has predicted more rains with thunderstorm in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions during next 24 hours.

In Hyderabad heavy rain preceded by powerful windstorm carrying winds of 50 nautical miles per hours brought civic life to a grinding halt. It started raining at 5.45 pm, converting all the main roads and streets into cesspools, and continued till the filing of this report at 9pm.

The airport meteorological office recorded 32 mm of rains while the department’s city office recorded 60mm of rains.

Hundreds of people were stranded on main roads as their vehicles were stuck up after rainwater entered engines. However, there were no reports of any casualty from part of the city.The conditions were the worst in Hyder Chowk, Qazi Abdul Qayyum Road, Qadam Gah Maula Ali Road, Cloth Market Road, Station Road, Unit-8 Latifabad Road, Auto Bahn road and Unit-2 Latifabad Road, which had been left dug up for over a year to lay sewers.

Almost a year ago on Sept 7 105mm torrential rains had exposed the fragility of sewerage system maintained by the Hyderabad Development Authority and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and compelled the district government to overhaul it.

A year on and the development works are still incomplete putting people to unbearable inconvenience when they have to take small streets and roads to reach their destinations.

Parts of the city in Latifabad, Qasimabad and Hyderabad (rural) taluka experienced power breakdown the moment it started raining.

According to the managing director of Wasa, there was no power supply at Fatima Jinnah (Thandi Sarak) Road causing them difficulties in draining out rainwater. Pinjra Pole, Liauqat Colony, Tulsi Das Road, Cloth Market, Ilyasabad, Hali Road and Latifabad Unit –2, 9 and 11 have been submerged.

District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil, City Taluka Nazim Javed Jabbar and Latifabad Taluka Nazim Sabir Kaimkhani visited different parts of the city.

The nazim believed that the water would soon be drained out as all the pumping stations were working properly. “They have also been connected with standby generators that’s why I hope water will recede soon,” said the nazim.

He said that Wasa and HDA had already been directed to gear up for rehabilitation work in the wake of rains.

Traffic remained stuck up on Fatima Jinnah Road, Auto Bahn Road, Hyder Chowk, Latifabad Units No2, 7, 11, 9, 8 roads with long queues of vehicles.

Countless number of telephones went dead after the rainwater made it to cables while a large number of government employees and daily wage workers who come from adjoining towns and villages were seen stranded as private transport service between Hyderabad-Kotri, Hyderabad-Jamshoro, Hyderabad-Hussainabad and Laitfabad went off the roads in the wake of rains.

Countless number of pedestrians and motorcyclists took the Hyderabad-Latifabad railway track to reach their homes after the Hyderabad-Laifabad underpass was submerged in four feet of water, causing suspension of railway traffic between Hyderabad and Karachi.

According to a Karachi-based railway official the arrival and departure of up and down country trains had been delayed considerably due to rains.

In Sanghar, heavy rain preceded by dust storm lashed the city and its adjoining towns and villages for one and a half hours inundating low lying areas and causing power failure. It caught the farmers unawares, when they were busy picking cotton.

A two-year-old boy suffered injuries when the roof of his house collapsed in heavy rains that lashed Mirpurkhas and its adjoining towns and villages. It rained for two hours causing damages to crops and inundating low lying areas.