Weather Updates: The situation seems to be more grim in Maharashtra where the Marathwada region has been bearing the brunt of rain fury.
Rains have disrupted normal life in several places across India. While a house collapsed in Kolkata on Wednesday, a techie died after falling into a drain in Hyderabad, two were killed in Bihar’s Begusarai and 13 died in Maharashtra.
The situation seems to be more grim in Maharashtra where the Marathwada region has been bearing the brunt of rain fury. More than 560 people were rescued after the NDRF was mobilised and helicopters were deployed, officials said on Tuesday. Besides, more than 200 cattle perished or were washed away and a number of houses were damaged in torrential rains that lashed Marathwada on Sunday and Monday, causing havoc in a region which is considered a perennially drought-plagued area, they said.
HERE’S THE DESTRUCTION ACROSS INDIA:
Maharashtra:
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast ‘extremely heavy rains‘ at a few places in Marathwada, Mumbai and other parts of the coastal Konkan region of Maharashtra in the next 24 hours.
The Marathwada region in central Maharashtra which faced rain fury comprises eight districts – Aurangabad, Latur, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Nanded, Beed, Jalna and Hingoli. Heavy rainfall in catchment areas of the Manjara dam forced authorities to open all 18 gates of the reservoir to discharge water on Tuesday, which led to flooding in some villages in Beed district, while an alert was sounded in some neighbouring districts, the officials said.
The local administration opened all 18 gates of the Manjara dam and 11 gates of the Majalgaon dam, resulting in discharge of 78,397 cusec 80,534 cusec water from them, respectively, they said. An official from the disaster management department said in Mumbai that 13 people have died due to heavy rains and lightning in parts of Maharashtra, while 136 others have received injuries.
Of these 13 deaths, 12 were reported from Marathwada and Vidarbha regions and one from North Maharashtra’s Nashik district, the official said. Of the 12 deaths, three were reported from Yavatmal district (in Vidarbha where a bus was swept away), two each from Beed, Osmanabad, Parbhani (Marathwada) and one each from Jalna, Latur (Marathwada) and Buldhana (Vidarbha), he said.
The heavy rain and flood have damaged crops on several acres of agricultural land in the region, he said. “Since Monday, the Water Resources Department has been monitoring the situation closely. We are trying to minimise the damage,” Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil told reporters in Beed.
The Manjara dam was filled to the capacity which necessitated opening of 18 gates of the dam, an official said.Twenty persons were rescued from a house in Wakadwadi village of Kalamb tehsil. Some 125 persons were rescued in Ramwadi, 114 in Irla, 35 each in Ter and Borkheda and 90 in Dautpur, the official said.
Two teams of NDRF participated in the rescue operations. The collector of neighbouring Latur district, Prithviraj B P, told.
West Bengal
Two people are feared to be trapped in debris as a house collapsed in the Ahiritola area of North Kolkata on Wednesday due to heavy rainfall. The city is under the impact of a well marked low pressure zone over Gangetic Bengal, a weather official said. So far, no injuries or deaths have been reported. Rescue operations are underway.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for very heavy rains in some districts of south Bengal for Wednesday. In South 24 Parganas, one of the three coastal districts in West Bengal, more than 35,000 people were evacuated from low lying areas, even as the local administration in East Midnapore and North 24 Parganas were keeping the relief shelters ready while maintaining a close watch on the situation.
“While red alert, the highest form of alert in the four graded rain alert system, was sounded for three districts – East Midnapore, West Midnapore and South 24 Parganas – on Tuesday, for Wednesday it has been sounded for West Midnapore and Jhargram where there could be rainfall up to 200mm,” said an IMD official in Kolkata.
Similarly, orange alert, the next category of alert, has also been sounded for multiple districts in south Bengal such as North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Bankura and Purulia, among others.
Telangana
In a horrific video, a man was seen walking straight into an open drain in Hyderabad on Saturday night amid heavy rain. Deceased Rajinikanth, whose body was found later, was seen walking in ankle-deep water, seconds later the cellphone video shows him falling into the water-filled drain in Manikonda locality under Narsingi PS limits of Cyberabad.
Local reports said that three people lost their lives in cyclone Gulab-triggered rain-related incidents over the past 24 hours in Telangana even as hundreds of people residing in a low-lying area in Hyderabad were evacuated to safer places as a precautionary measure.
A report in Times of India quoted police as saying that a body was seen floating at high speed in Musi under Amberpet police station limits on Tuesday. Locals shot a video and alerted the police and by the time the police could react, the body got washed away. “Since the flow of the water was heavy, the body got washed away at high speed,” assistant commissioner of police (Malakpet division) N Venkat Ramana was quoted.
In another incident, a 27-year-old man was swept away on Monday night while crossing a overflowing stream on his motorcycle at Pulusumamidi in Vikarabad district and his body was recovered on Tuesday, a police official was quoted as saying. About five km away, his body was found in a stream.
In the third incident reported from Kamareddy district, a 55-year-old man was washed away after his vehicle skidded and he fell into a lake while crossing it and his body was traced later. The motorist was identified as P Bhagavan Reddy, TOI report stated.
Bihar
The effect of Cyclone Gulab, which made landfall on the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh on Sunday evening, fell on Bihar too where two siblings were killed and one other injured in a lightning strike in Begusarai district on Monday afternoon.
The Meteorological Department had issued an orange alert in districts like Buxar, Rohtas, Kaimur, Aurangabad, Bhojpur, Siwan, Munger, Banka, Begusarai etc as apart from its effect on the coastal states, it was also expected to impact Jharkhand and Bihar.
Gujarat
Very heavy to extremely heavy rain (over 20 cm) is likely over several parts of Gujarat with a low pressure system, a remnant of cyclone Gulab, heading towards the Gujarat coast on Wednesday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
According to the weather department, heavy to very heavy rainfall will occur at isolated places over Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, north Madhya Maharashtra & north Konkan.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall is also very likely at isolated places over Saurashtra & Kutch; while heavy rainfall is expected at isolated places over Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal and Gujarat on Thursday, MeT further said.
