Bengaluru: Rain breaks 14-year record

Bengaluru: It was the perfect anti-climax to a calm morning when the Transport bandh ensured that most buses were off the roads. The skies opened up with full fury at around 4 pm on Thursday accompanied by gusty winds throwing life out of gear and disrupting traffic in almost all parts of the city.

Weather office sources put the wind speed at 70 kmph which uprooted about 100 trees in three hours and felled close to 190 poles. South Bengaluru bore the brunt with close to 123 poles uprooted in several localities. Power was disrupted and traffic went haywire.

It made the new traffic top cop of the city Mr M.A. Saleem come onto the flooded roads to manage traffic flow. But with trees falling everywhere and workers finding it hard to remove them in time, it was anyone’s guess when people would reach home.

At the Majestic area which was crowded with people planning to exit the city for the long week-end, vehicles got marooned. Both BBMP and Bescom Call Centres were flooded with distress calls. Bescom control room received  2,500 calls in just three hours.

Meteorological officials have predicted similar rainfall coupled with thunder in the next three days. “There is a weather system prevailing between southern Madhya Pradesh and Kerala over north interior Karnataka. This is backed by another system – an upper air cyclonic circulation – which is bringing rains to Bengaluru. This is the highest rainfall for April — 274 mm – in the last 14 years,” said Sunder M. Metri, Director of IMD, Bengaluru.

A huge tree collapses on a car near Mahatma Gandhi Road (Photo: DC)

A cloudburst of misery in city

For over a week, Bengaluru has been hit by sudden downpours and this April was the wettest in the last 14 years. Thursday’s rainfall left major roads in city inundated. Tree falls and power outages compounded to the woes of city residents.

Bescom and BBMP control rooms received about 5,000 calls from distressed residents within three hours. Trees were uprooted in Brunton Road, Lavalle Road, Halasuru- Gangadhara Shetty road, Banaswadi-CMR Road, Koramangala 1st block, Sony World junction Inner Ring Road, Krupanidhi College Jn-Koramangala, Makkalakuta, Movinapura, Aravinda circle in Jayanagar, 5th main, 35th main in Jayanagar and Banashankri bus stop. In Koramangala more than eight trees were uprooted.

At South End Circle, a moving car got damaged after a huge tree fell on it. An electric pole collapsed on a vehicle near Sony Centre Junction, resulting in traffic jam in Koramangala 6th Block. Palike workers had a tough time clearing fallen trees from the roads.

In Bangalore South, however, many residents complained that Palike was slow in clearing trees, resulting in traffic snarls. Bumper to bumper traffic was reported in Shivajinagar, St.John’s Road, Koramangala, Jayanagar, Ulsoor and Bannerghatta Road. Police helped Bescom staff and residents to restore traffic movement.

Vehicles damaged on Narayan Pillai Street in Koramangala (Photo: DC)

Flights diverted

Four flights from different destinations to Bengaluru were diverted to Chennai due to bad weather in Bengaluruon Thursday evening, airport officials said. The flights of private airlines were from Mumbai, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, they said.

None of the passengers were asked to disembark and the flights left for Bengaluru after the weather cleared in that city, they said.