City areas marooned, 4 dead

City areas marooned, 4 dead
Deccan Herald

Instances of houses being flooded, power failure, choked drains and uprooting of trees have made matters worse for the hapless citizens.

The heavy rains lashing the City since Saturday have left a wide swathe of death and destruction. As of late Sunday, at least four people had been killed. Drains were choked in many areas and overflowing storm water drains flooded key roads and streets. Some layouts were marooned; trees were uprooted and fell across roads, worsening the nightmarish traffic.

The deaths were reported from Malleshpalya, Byappanahalli and C V Raman Nagar. While two were said to have died in house collapse the other two drowned while they were sleeping on a platform at the City bustand.

JP Nagar V Phase seemed to be the worst affected. The upmarket Dollars Colony was no better.

At least 200 houses were reported flooded at Indiranagar, Domlur and HAL II stage and power supply was disrupted in the epidemic diseases hospital area.

Choked drains at JP Nagar V Phase dumped sewage and muck into homes. the nearby Puttenahalli lake too breached its banks throwing in loads of waste and water into residential areas.

Marooned residents spread across some 10 crossroads under 24th Main, (Ward 28 Bommanahalli CMC) claimed that the Puttenahalli lake had breached but CMC officials and police maintained that it was only an overflow. Sources in the Lake development Authority said what actually happened could be confirmed only on Monday.

Families evacuate

Help of sorts arrived at JP Nagar only around 2:30 pm on Sunday. By then many families had shifted to safer places. Mohammad Alifulla of J P Nagar I Phase said residents had been desperately trying to call the Bescom complaint number but to no avail.

Cars and assorted vehicles were submerged. The basement of Rajalakshmi Apartments turned into a virtual swimming pool.

At 5 pm on Sunday, Mr Hiranyakumar AEE, Bommanahalli CMC, said two excavators had been pressed into service to clear choked drains and machines were also dispatched to pump out water from houses. But, contacted around 8:30 pm residents maintained that there was still no relief.

Elsewhere across Bangalore — be it Dollars Colony, Basaveswaranagar, Azadnagar, Kamakshipalya or New Byappanahalli — the tale of havoc was no different.

Avinash, a resident of Dollars Colony 5th Main, said: “The reverse flow of sewage can be seen even in the washbasin and sinks in the house.”

Nearly 300 houses in Indiranagar II Stage and 20 houses in HAL 13 “A” Main were flooded on Sunday evening. A huge tree crashed in the The Oberoi premises.

It fell on a telephone pole and TV cables making them a tangled mess.