Hailstones pelt city; trees fall, traffic crawls

Hailstones pelt city; trees fall, traffic crawls
Monday March 31 2008 07:23 IST

ENS

BANGALORE: For 15 minutes, between 3.10 pm and 3.25 pm, people in Koramangala, BTM Layout and surrounding areas were pleasantly surprised by the sudden and heavy rain that brought with it this year’s first hailstones.

Through the heavy showers which extended for about 30 minutes before reducing to a drizzle, children and adults alike were seen picking hailstones excitedly.

But the showers also brought down tree branches, disrupting traffic. Cases of tree fall were reported at Koramangala, Jayanagar and Austin Town. A tree inside the St John’s Medical College Hospital premises fell on an autorickshaw. Another tree at Koramangala BDA Complex fell on two cars.

Electric cables snapped on the service road in Koramangala near Raheja Arcade, next to Monday to Sunday outlet and at Rupena Agrahara. However, no injuries were reported.

Traffic was clogged for more than an hour at the Bangalore Dairy Circle flyover and extended up to Forum Mall due to the fallen tree branches and water logging on the roads. While four wheelers were stalled on the roads, twowheelers riders tried to wade through ankle-deep water.

Although branches were being cleared immediately, there was a traffic pile-up on Hosur road near Christ College and vehicles heading towards the Central Silk Board were diverted through Adugodi and Bannerghatta Road.

The forecast from the Meteorological Department states that there would be no significant change in the weather for the next two days. On Sunday, the Met office recorded a rainfall of 1.4 mm in the city and 6.4 mm at the airport.

For the entire State, the weather forecast states that there would be rain or thundershowers over south interior Karnataka and mainly dry weather will prevail over all districts of coastal Karnataka and north interior Karnataka.

Heavy rains also caused clogging of drains in Manjunathnagar, Hoskerehalli and Ittamadu. A few houses were flooded.