Bengaluru yesterday received a record 180mm rains in barely three hours, the heaviest downpour in August in over 100 years.
The rains wreaked havoc across the city, crippling life, flooding roads and houses in many areas and dampened the 71st Independence Day celebrations.
According to the Meteorological Department, Bengaluru has not witnessed such a heavy rainfall in August since 1890 when 166mm rain was recorded on a single day.
“As the downpour in just three hours (3am to 6am) was so heavy, the storm water drains could not take the load in such a short time, resulting in rainwater overflowing on several roads and inundating low-laying areas,” Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palika (BBMP) Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad told reporters.
The torrential rains uprooted trees, twisted electric poles and snapped cable lines even in upscale residential areas across the city, disrupting power supply.
Civic officials used make-shift boats to rescue stranded people in some areas while power outages led to blackouts for hours since early morning in many areas.
“We received distress calls and complaints from hundreds of those affected regarding storm water drains overflowing, and rainwater entering basements, ground floor homes and apartments,” a civic official from the BBMP control room said.
Police had a tough time during the day, as several arterial roads, subways and underbridges were waterlogged, slowing traffic.
Scientist C N Prabhu of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre admitted that the weather monitoring system did not predict such a heavy rainfall.
“We had forecast a moderate rainfall but it developed into much heavier than we could predict. It is certainly 3-4 times heavier than the prediction,” Prabhu said.
“There was a thick patch of clouds over the city that caused the downpour. Being the monsoon season, heavy rains are not unusual,” Prabhu added.
A man looks for a lost item in his flooded house situated in a low-lying area in Bengaluru yesterday.
