Bengaluru buckles up for heavy rains

Bengaluru: The heavy downpour coupled with thunder and lightning on Thursday night created havoc in the city and disrupted normal life. The rain lashed down for over two hours and left the city inundated, power lines snapped, and traffic was thrown out of gear. The rain’s fury did not spare even Vikas Soudha, where water leaked into some rooms. The morning show at Aparna theatre, showing Billion Dollar Baby had to be cancelled on Friday as storm water flooded the theatre, dampening the spirits of movie buffs.

A huge tree was uprooted on Rajbhavan Road, paralysing traffic completely. The forest department, BBMP and fire brigade had a tough time clearing the huge tree. At least 20 trees were uprooted, blocking roads and disrupting the flow of traffic. Tree falls were reported from Jeevan Bhimanagar, near Krishna Apartment, Nagpura ward, Jalahalli 14th main, Basaveshwarnagar and Apollonagar. The BBMP rushed its gang to the affected areas and cleared the logs to ensure smooth movement of traffic.

Storm water inundated over 20 houses in several low-lying areas. Complaints of water logging were reported from Muneshwaranagar in Rajarajeshwarinagar, St. Thomas school in Vasanthnagar, Kalyananagar, Malleswaram, Vijayanagar, Jayanagar and Kodipalya. Residents had to scoop out the water themselves on Friday morning, and the BBMP control room was flooded with complaints.

The city was plunged into darkness on Thursday night as transformers were damaged and feeder lines disrupted. There was no sign of power supply being restored even on Friday in several parts of the city. Bescom’s helplines registered a whopping 950 calls in a span of six hours on Friday morning.

Bescom officials said that most of the complaints were attended to by 7.30 pm and no major power disruption was noted during the night rains. During last week’s rains, several poles were grounded, again causing major problems in electricity supply.

Delay in monsoon: The delayed south-west monsoon sent the calculations of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) awry. The IMD had calculated that the monsoon would hit the Kerala coast on June 3. But it had to revise its calculations as the monsoon set in on Friday, June 6.

The IMD has also predicted that the long range monsoon for the country will be below normal this year. However, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science had calculated in 2012 that parts of south interior Karnataka such as Bengaluru, Mysore, Coorg, Chamarajnagar and Ramanagara will have surplus rains for the next 10 years.