At least 20 people were killed and numerous others were injured as incessant rains continued to lash several parts of Uttar Pradesh since late Wednesday night.
The deluge also exposed the apathetic functioning of the civic authorities as residents of major cities, including state capital Lucknow, were faced with severe water-logging, uprooting of trees and electric poles and craters in busy roads.
As per latest reports, the low-lying areas in Lucknow were inundated, power lines were snapped due to uprooting of trees in several areas, railway tracks were submerged and underpasses closed due to water-logging. Three flights, including an international scheduled to land at Lucknow airport, had to be diverted to Delhi due to heavy rains and water-logging on the runway. The flights were coming from Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Dubai.
Due to the inclement weather, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's scheduled visit to Barabanki on Thursday was also called off as rainwater flooded the event venue and the temporary helipad for the chief minister’s chopper to land was submerged.
Due to the torrential rains, schools have been closed in Rae Bareli, Amethi and several other districts up to Class 8 for the next two days.
A report from Etawah said that train services on the busy Delhi-Kanpur route were disrupted for two hours when an eucalyptus tree fell on the railway tracks, snapping the overhead power line. Superintendent of Etawah junction station, Puranmal Meena, said that due to heavy rains a huge tree of eucalyptus fell on the Down line near Sunderpur railway crossing around 11:15 am on Thursday as a result of which power supply of the Up and Down lines were disrupted.
Due to the breakdown of OHE line, Jodhpur Howrah, Neelanchal Express and Kalka Mail were stopped at Etawah railway station, besides many other important trains were stopped at other stations.
Meanwhile, heavy downpour has claimed several lives so far. In Sujanpura area of Jaunpur, four people were killed after a wall collapsed due to incessant rains. A similar incident was reported from Thema hamlet of Ram Sanehi Ghat area in Barabanki where a man and his son died after the roof of their house collapsed on them sometime in the night. The villagers found their bodies lying under the rubble on Thursday morning.
Elsewhere in Fatehpur, three people, including two children, were killed and two others injured in separate incidents of wall collapses during the last 24 hours. Tiya (18) and her sister Muskaan (3) were buried under the rubble of their kutcha house and died immediately after it collapsed in Mohammadpur Gaunti village late on Wednesday night. In another incident, a couple and their daughter Komal (2) were sleeping in their kutcha house when it collapsed in Mardah village on Wednesday night. The neighbours rushed to their rescue but could not save the girl. The couple sustained injuries and was admitted to a government hospital.
In Bareilly and adjoining areas, four people, including two children, were killed and five others injured in separate incidents of wall collapse in the last 24 hours. In Subhash Nagar police station area, Nihal Thakur (5) died after the wall of the house collapsed on him while he was about to leave his home. The locals rushed the child to a local hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. In Saidpur area of Izatnagar police station in Bareilly, Sachin Sahu (2) died and his young sister suffered serious injuries after the wall of an under-construction house collapsed on them due to rain and storm. The girl is undergoing treatment at a hospital. Local officials rushed to the two spots to assist the families of the deceased.'
In Nawabpur area of Sitapur, a child was buried alive after a wall collapsed on him late on Wednesday night. Similarly in Tikriya hamlet of Rae Bareli, a woman died in a wall collapse. In Lungri hamlet of Amethi, a man died after the wall of his house collapsed over him in the wee hours of Thursday.
In Ballia district of eastern UP, a 55-year-old woman, Purshottam Devi, was killed while her husband and two grandsons were injured when a wall of their semi-pucca house in Savrupur village of Rasra police station area collapsed on Wednesday morning. All four were rushed to a community health centre (CHC) where doctors pronounced Purshottam Devi dead. Her husband and grandson are undergoing treatment at Ballia District Hospital.
In another such incident in Chitrakoot district of the Bundelkhand region, Kunti (68) died after a kutcha wall collapsed in Shankar Bazaar area of Karvi Sadar police station area on Wednesday night. Similar incidents of house collapse were also reported from Ayodhya and Kaushambi but the exact number of casualties was still not confirmed.
UP’s State Disaster Relief Force (SDR) personnel initiated the process of providing relief to the kin of the deceased.
The Meteorological department has issued an orange alert for the state and has predicted heavy rains throughout Friday and light to moderate rains in the next two-three days. Lucknow recorded 115 mm of rainfall between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning, with the weathermen predicting no respite soon.
The IMD has also issued a heavy rain alert for 30 districts of UP for the next 48 hours, including Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Barabanki, Sultanpur, Mathura, Sitapur, Ayodhya, Moradabad, Shamli, Varanasi, Sambhal, Bulandshahr, Bijnor, Amroha, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur and Prayagraj, accompanied by strong winds with speed up to 87 kilometers per hour. The untimely deluge has increased farmers' woes as paddy crops are falling due to the strong winds.
The incessant rains paralysed normal life not only in Varanasi but almost all the areas in the Purvanchal (eastern UP) on Thursday. It is expected that the same weather conditions will continue for a couple of more days.
According to the report of the Central Water Commission (CWC), Varanasi received 52 mm rainfall by 8 am on Thursday, Mirzapur 146.2 mm, Jaunpur 80.2 mm, Narayanpur 104.8 mm and Chunar 80 mm (both in Mirzapur) and Chopan (Sonbhadra) 61.2 mm, Pratapgarh 307.6 mm, Phaphamau (Prayagraj) 125.6 mm and Allahabad 104.4 mm.
In Varanasi, rains affected air services. A flight from Delhi (G8 404) was diverted due to bad weather while AI 695 from Mumbai and G8 403 from Bengaluru were cancelled. The flights SG 2772, AI 406, UL 3612 (all from Delhi), G8 349 and 6E 5378 (both from Mumbai) landed at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Babatpur, behind their scheduled time.
Due to the rains, the major rivers which were either receding or were steady in the recent days, once again started rising. The river Ganga started rising from upstream Phaphamau to Ghazipur including Varanasi. However, it was steady at downstream Ballia. Besides, the river Gomti also started rising both at upstream Sultanpur and downstream Jaunpur. Both these rivers caused floods in the region recently. Besides, river Sone was also rising at Chopan.
