In light of the yellow warning issued owing to heavy rains, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced a vacation for all schools in Mumbai and the Konkan region. Meanwhile, heavy rains lashed sections of Gujarat’s Saurashtra districts, triggering flooding in low-lying areas and cutting off many villages.
Here are the most important updates on the severe rains in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
MUMBAI
For Thane, Palghar, Raigad, and Ratnagiri, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange advisory for Thursday. Mumbai has also received a yellow warning. Over portions of Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, and Palghar, intermittent moderate to heavy rainstorms are anticipated to persist for the next three to four hours. Currently, portions of the north-eastern suburbs, Thane, and Raigad are quite likely to see severe rain periods. Additionally quite probable are sporadic gusty winds.
Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, issued a severe rainfall warning for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and ordered a vacation for all schools in the districts of Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, and Palghar. Children are also encouraged to remain indoors and not go outside to snap selfies or get soaked by the storm.
In order to examine the situation in Mumbai, Shinde also went to the control center of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Deepak Kesarkar, the education minister for Maharashtra, has urged people to avoid beaches and nallahs.
Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, ordered the early closure of all government offices in Mumbai and the surrounding areas due to heavy rains that were having an effect on local rail services and traffic.
A ground-plus-five-story structure in the suburb of Bhandup suffered a third-floor slab collapse that killed a five-year-old child, according to a municipal official.
During heavy rains, a man’s four-month-old child accidentally fell off his arm and into a flooded sewer not far from Thakurli town. An Ambernath-bound suburban train had halted between Thakurli and Kalyan stations owing to wet tracks when the event happened. The infant slid and plunged into the overflowing water below as a young lady and her brother-in-law sought to cross the drain’s small pipes. Videos of the event went viral, and the mother yelled in fear. Eknath Shinde, the chief minister, offered his sympathies for the terrible tragedy.
Up till Wednesday night, Mumbai had moderate to severe rain, despite an orange signal that foresaw strong to very heavy precipitation in several areas. The Santacruz observatory received 52.8 mm of rainfall, while the Colaba observatory recorded 98.4 mm, according to the BMC’s monsoon reports. The island city, eastern suburbs, and western suburbs all saw average rainfall between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm of 58.46 mm, 48.80 mm, and 50.63 mm, respectively. Reay Road in Mumbai, which received 92.73 mm of rain, had the most, followed by suburban Kandivali, which received 89.67 mm, and Dahisar, which received 84.84 mm.
After hours of interruption on the Kalyan-Badlapur stretch, Central Railway’s suburban train services were resumed, and the Kalyan-Kasara line was back in operation in three hours. While some trains were redirected through other routes, others between Mumbai and Pune were short-terminated or canceled. Many commuters had to walk on train tracks to get to terminals because of the inconvenience. Later, a morning problem on the Panvel-Belapur Harbour Line was fixed.
GUJARAT
Heavy rains severely affected the Junagadh district on Wednesday, with Mangrol taluka collecting 290 mm of precipitation in eight hours starting at six in the morning. The next reported rainfall was 191 mm in the Malia Hatina taluka. Rainfall totals of 111 mm and 110 mm, respectively, were reported at Keshod and Manavadar in Junagadh over the same time period.
As a result of water release, dams and monsoon rivers like Ojas spilled, drowning communities and converting fields into lakes, making the situation worse. People were forced to seek safety on roofs when rapid floods forced them to evacuate several neighborhoods.
Heavy flooding and car submergence in low-lying regions disrupted daily life in Junagadh City and Keshod Town.
Rescue efforts and relocation to safer locations were actively supported by the local police, the State Disaster Response Force, and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
Over 100 people were rescued by the NDRF team from flooded villages in Gir Somnath’s Veraval Taluka, one of the worst-affected districts. In the Junagadh district, at least 14 villages reported flooded approach roads. Due to the flood-like conditions, state transportation bus services were suspended in the Saurashtra area.
Many villages in Gir Somnath’s Sutrapada taluka turned into islands as a result of the flooding, which also damaged household goods and cereals. Low-lying regions were flooded as a result of overflowing rivers including the Saraswati and the Hiran.
According to SEOC, heavy rainfall totaled 541, 481 and 299 mm in Surtarapada, Veraval, and Talaja talukas, respectively, in a 24-hour period up to 6 am on Wednesday. In addition, some residential societies in Vapi town experienced flooding, as did the districts of Valsad and Surat in south Gujarat.