Parched Anantapur district received heavy rain at last but when it came, it poured. Uravakonda mandal took the brunt of it, paying for the bounty dearly. Three hundred heads of 300 sheep were lost, a few check dams were washed away and several houses collapsed.
Heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning struck Uravakonda and its surrounding villages of Amidyala, Raketla and Muvvalagiripalle shortly past midnight Monday.
It poured for almost four hours, giving the town’s Pedda Vagu its first inflows this monsoon. It was a wicked blessing: the flood brushed aside a few check dams along the way. At least two check dams, officials said, were washed away with no trace of them left.Close to 20 houses in Uravakonda town were damaged to in varying degrees. While three people are learnt to have been injured, no casualties were reported.
At Muvvalagiripalle village, a shepherd who had built a makeshift pen on the river bed lost all his sheep, including days old lambs, to the flood. Several villages experienced power cuts till late into Tuesday afternoon.
