550 mm rain pounds Mumbai since Aug 15; seven dead across state, several districts on red alert
Across Maharashtra, at least seven persons lost their lives and around 2 lakh hectares of land in Vidarbha affected in the heavy rain, the Chief Minister’s Office stated on Monday.
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Students from a Thane school being taken to safety during heavy rain, Monday. (Express photo by Deepak Joshi)INTENSE RAIN on the third consecutive day brought Mumbai to a grinding halt on Monday, amid severe waterlogging, tree fall and wall collapse incidents that led to one death, and train services getting affected due to inundated railway tracks. Schools and colleges in the city were closed during the second shift in the afternoon, and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said they will remain closed on Tuesday as well.
Across Maharashtra, at least seven persons lost their lives and around 2 lakh hectares of land in Vidarbha affected in the heavy rain, the Chief Minister’s Office stated on Monday.
Even as the city received over 550 millimetre (mm) of rain between Friday (August 15) morning and Monday evening, the weather bureau said the downpour is likely to continue. Mumbai and its neighbouring districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad have been placed under “red” alert on Tuesday, while an orange alert has been sounded for Wednesday.
The intensity of rain will only recede after Thursday, when a “yellow” alert will remain in place, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
After experiencing about 100 mm rain on Sunday, a downpour pounded the city on Monday with the Santacruz observatory recording 124 mm rain between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm. In view of the showers starting early in the day, the IMD first issued a “red” nowcast warning for the city at 8.20 am and later, revised its forecast bulletin to sound a “red” alert — forecasting “extremely heavy” rainfall in isolated pockets — for Mumbai and its neighbouring districts until Wednesday morning.
According to BMC’s automatic weather station records, between 6 am and 2 pm, several pockets recorded over 150 mm rain. The heaviest downpour was received in Chembur at 177 mm, followed by Dadar (173.4 mm), Worli (170 mm), Wadala (165 mm), Versova (149 mm), Bandra (145mm) and in the eastern suburbs of Vikhroli and Chembur areas. Torrential rain triggered waterlogging in several pockets, leading to traffic jam. Low-lying areas like Hindmata junction, Parel, Gandhi Market, Dadar, Chembur, Khar, Andheri and Borivali were inundated.
The Monday rain comes after the city recorded nearly 43% of its monthly average quota of rain in a single day on Saturday when the city received over 200 mm rain in six hours.
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