Vadodara Rains, Gujarat Weather Forecast Today Highlights: Heavy rains resume, two more deaths reported

Heavy rains resume in the city again. Hamper relief ops and receding water levels.

All schools, colleges and government offices in Vadodara are closed today

Vadodara police overseeing the distribution of food, milk and helping provide drinking water to residents still facing trouble due to water logging. @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/AQxUikVm91

— Aditi Raja (@aditijf) August 2, 2019

NDRF personnel today rescued 50 people from Casa Apartment in Vadsar.

The Surat fire department teams are still in Vadodara to help evacuate residents from colonies still underwater and without electricity since over 36 hours.

Anand district collector has sent across 50,000 food packets to the flood victims in Vadodara evacuation centres.

The chief minister also announced a compensation of Rs four lakh for the kin of four persons, who were killed after a wall collapsed in Chhani area of Vadodara city.

"We are also hereby announcing that the state government will pay cash-doles for three days, according to legal provisions, to those who had to be evacuated to safer places due to flooding and couldn't go for work. All residents, who had been affected by floods and had to be shifted to safer places and whose names are there on the survey list, will get cash-doles. The poor, whose households items have been washed away in the flood and have suffered large-scale losses, will also get compensation," CM Rupani said.

"Situation is improving in Vadodara. It has not rained there since 11 o'clock yesterday. Levels of water are receding in Ajwa (reservoir) and Vishwamitri river. The situation is returning to normal. We are also tackling the shortage of drinking water and power outage. By 12 pm today, power will be restored in almost all feeders. The administration has operationalised pumps and is trying to supply drinking water," Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said in Rajkot.

Noida, meanwhile, witnessed light showers this morning.

In Vadodara, the water is gradually receding with most major roads opening to traffic. Vishwamitri river, which had crossed 34.5 feet yesterday, is at 32.3 feet now as Ajwa reservoir level has also gone down from 212.5 to 212. With rains taking a pause in Halol in the neighbouring district of Panchmahal - which floods Ajwa and in turn Vishwamitri - authorities expect the waterlogging in the city to be cleared within 8 hours.

Gujarat: Water-logging at a residential area in Ajita Nagar, Vadodara after rainfall in the region. pic.twitter.com/YtYtf1q8Gr

— ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2019

After two days of moderate showers, the met department today forecast "intense heavy rainfall" in Mumbai on late Saturday and Sunday. K S Hosalikar, Deputy Director General of Meteorology, India Met Department, Mumbai, tweeted, "With the development of low pressure area over Bay, this Saturday night and Sunday, Mumbai is very likely to get intense heavy rainfalls." "Warnings are issued (for areas) including West coast," he said. The IMD's Santacruz weather station in suburbs recorded 43.4 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours ended 8.30 am on Friday, according to its website. During the same period, the department's weather station at Colaba in South Mumbai recorded 21.2 mm rainfall.

Meanwhile, in the national capital, it was a warm Friday morning, with the minimum temperature settling at 28.3 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season's average. According to the MeT department, the humidity level recorded at 8.30 am was 80 per cent. The weatherman has predicted light rain later in the day. "The skies will be generally cloudy. There is possibility of light rain later in the day," he said. He also said that maximum temperature is expected to hover around 34 degrees Celsius. On Thursday, the minimum temperature recorded was 27.8 degrees Celsius while the maximum temperature settled at 36.9 degrees Celsius.

The Forest Department of Vadodara has so far rescued three crocodiles which had swum to residential areas after water from the Vishwamitri river flooded the city. However, the officials warned that more crocodiles will surface when the water starts receding. “So far we have rescued three crocodiles, one of them from a society on Rajmahal road and two from societies in Nizampura area of the city,” Assistant Conservator of Forests Vinod Damor said. “The crocodile rescued from Rajmahal road was four feet long and nearly six years old while the others were baby crocodiles of about two years of age. They have been moved to our rescue centre for now.”

People queue up to buy milk in flood-hit Vadodara.

Gujarat: People queue up to buy milk in flood hit Vadodara pic.twitter.com/1qtNL9dGM3

— ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2019

National Disaster Response Force personnel rescue people from Rhythm Heart Institute in Vadodara following flooding in the area.

Gujarat: National Disaster Response Force(NDRF) personnel rescue people from Rhythm Heart Institute in Vadodara following flooding in the area. pic.twitter.com/6Lnt8DEdiE

— ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2019

Meanwhile, the latest data from the World Meteorological Organization shows the month of July “at least equaled if not surpassed the hottest month in recorded history” — and it followed the hottest June ever, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday. The UN chief told reporters that “this is even more significant because the previous hottest month, July 2016, occurred during one of the strongest El Nino’s ever,” which was not the case this year.

Incessant rain that lashed Vadodara, inundating major parts of the city, caught majority of the residents off guard. With water entering their houses and making them stranded, they kept calling the authorities for help, leaving the helpline numbers busy. The fire department, too, rescued over 1,000 of people from various locations of the city. On Thursday afternoon, within two hours of intimation, the fire officials rescued a family of four, including a woman and three children, who was stuck on the ground floor of their house in Harni area of the city as water levels increased to four feet. 

The IMD warning for Gujarat on Friday said, “Heavy to very heavy rains very likely at isolated places in the districts of Panchmahal, Patan, Mehsana, Aravalli, Mahisagar, Anand, Kheda, Vadodara,Valsad, Navsari, Narmada, Bharuch and Dahod. Heavy rain very likely at isolated places in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Chhota Udepur, Surat, Dangs and Tapi. Heavy to very heavy rain very likely at isolated places in the districts of Saurashtra, including Bhavnagar, Botad, Rajkot, Amreli, Gir Somnath, Junagadh and Kutch.”

Five trains have been cancelled, two trains have been short terminated and two trains short originated due to heavy rains in Vadodara and waterlogging at the railway station and surrounding areas, Skymet Weather reported.

Till the first half of Thursday, Gujarat received 46.15 per cent of the total annual rainfall, although 18 of its 33 districts remained rainfall deficient. Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Mahisagar and Devbhoomi Dwarka districts have received the least rainfall. Vadodara Municipal Corporation declared all schools, colleges and government offices closed on Friday as well. Dozens of trains and buses to and from Vadodara in Gujarat have also been cancelled.

A staggering 499 mm of rainfall in 24 hours till 8 am on Thursday and a swollen Vishwamitri river left nearly 90 per cent of Vadodara inundated. The city was marooned as flight operations were suspended, railway tracks flooded and highway entry points into the city became inaccessible due to waterlogging. Flight operations, however, resumed later in the evening. The Vishwamitri river, which crossed the danger mark of 26 feet within three hours of downpour on Wednesday evening, began flowing above 34 feet on Thursday morning.

After two days of relentless rain in Gujarat, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has once again issued a warning of extremely heavy rainfall in the districts of Banaskantha and Sabarkantha for Friday. The weather agency has issued heavy rainfall warning for North, Central, South and Saurashtra districts till August 4. Follow our live blog for all the latest updates.