For nearly 20 hours a steady rain beat down on Varanasi, leaving five people dead and two injured and turning parts of Uttar Pradesh into a flood zone. With Kashi registering 65 mm in a day, the highest this season, concerns over river levels and urban flooding have mounted as alerts have been issued from central to northern India.
Varanasi reels as marathon downpour floods city
Roads, lanes and homes in large sections of Varanasi were inundated. At the BHU hospital the situation was dire; relatives had to hoist patients on their shoulders to get to wards through knee-deep water.
Manoj Srivastava, a weather scientist, confirmed the 65 mm figure for the last 24 hours is the top mark for the season. In response, authorities have sent in four municipal machines to clear the worst of the water in some localities.
Officials attribute the five fatalities and two injuries to the extended nature of the downpour. It has exposed how vulnerable the city is to such intense, short-lived bursts, not to mention the toll on medical access when the waterlogging is this bad.
Uttar Pradesh on alert: rivers in spate, 19 districts at risk
Today the state administration has put all 75 districts on a rain alert. Seven can expect very heavy rainfall and 33 are in for heavy rain. Since Tuesday morning, 69 cities from Lucknow and Varanasi to Ayodhya, Jhansi, Jaunpur and Pratapgarh have been lashed by intermittent downpours.
Rivers have swelled in Uttar Pradesh and 19 districts are reporting flood-like situations. Dozens of villages in Lakhimpur Kheri are at risk after an embankment breach on the Sharda River at Tamolinpurwa.
The Khedar River in Lalitpur is running some three feet above a bridge and the Sirsi Bridge is under water. In Badaun, Ramganga waters have taken to the roads and boats are being used in the affected villages. Jhansi has been under hard rain since about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The key developments in UP so far:
– Rain alert in effect for all 75 districts today
Wider monsoon impact: MP, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Uttarakhand
The monsoon is still active in Madhya Pradesh. An orange alert has been put in place by the Meteorological Department for Tikamgarh, Damoh, Narsinghpur, Betul and Rajgarh, with more rain to come in the state over the next three days.
Over the past day there has been heavy rain in Bastar, Raipur, Bilaspur and Surguja in Chhattisgarh. In Korba, the catchments have responded quickly to the surge, with rivers and streams overflowing into homes.
Delhi had a vigorous spell on Tuesday, with many parts of the city seeing close to 100 mm in 24 hours and the attendant traffic problems. To the north, Uttarakhand has put Dehradun, Pithoragarh, Nainital and Bageshwar on a yellow alert and is warning of poor weather for the week ahead.
Disruptions to major infrastructure have been reported in the hills and the NCR:
– Pilgrims in Pithoragarh left stranded by a landslide near Dharchula-Gunji
– Kodla-Urai-Gharod road in Chamba closed following a mountain collapse
– Waterlogging on Sohna Road has hampered Gurugram commuters
– IFFCO Chowk site of a 20-foot sinkhole
– Some 10,000 in Naugachia, Bhagalpur affected by an embankment failure
What officials say and what to expect next
Atul Kumar Singh of the Lucknow meteorology office says monsoon activity has been stoked by a cyclonic system in eastern UP and low pressure in the Bay of Bengal. Very heavy rain is a possibility in the south, while the east will see light to moderate showers for the next few days.
In western UP, westerly winds make strong or heavy rain unlikely for now, he said, which is some respite for the west while the east makes ready for another round of wet weather.
There is cause for caution around the rivers and low ground in central India given the orange alert in five MP districts and the three-day forecast. With the capital region already contending with urban flooding and Chhattisgarh’s rivers in spate, one can expect authorities to be focused on drainage and embankment watch in the coming 48 to 72 hours.
