Rain pain: City in a mess

Rain pain: City in a mess
DH News Service,Bangalore:
The fury of the rain god returned to haunt Bangaloreans with a devastating effect particularly for the residents around the Begur lake in Bommanahalli. Incessant showers through Friday night and Saturday breached the lake and flooded residential layouts in its vicinity.

It was the same old story: Of water gushing into houses, damaging electronic goods and household items, residents struggling to fish out valuables and moving even in boats to safe places.

From Begur to Bommanahalli, HSR Layout Sector 7 to Popular Colony, the watery nightmare had people in deep trouble. According to the residents, rainwater breached the lake bank, flooding the entire area. Many residents spent Friday night without sleep, bailing out water from their homes.

The water spread to several houses in Bommanahalli, Garvebavipalya, Begur, Hongasandra, HSR Layout Sector-7 and Popular Colony. Till Saturday evening, the entire area was engulfed in water.

About 1,500 houses were affected, with some low-lying areas resembling virtual islands. However, no loss of human life was reported.

A resident of the area, Mohammed Aziz said he had never seen such a flood-like situation in the area. “The area looks like a lake. My house is bit away from here. I came here this morning to oversee some construction work. I am shocked to see the flooding,” Aziz told Deccan Herald.

Manzoor Ali, a resident of Begur, said the bank of the lake had developed cracks and the officials had noticed it, yet no action had been taken. He said no officials turned up to see the misery of the residents. “Just because of official apathy, we have to suffer losses. Our expensive electronic goods and other valuables are damaged; our houses are flooded and we had a sleepless night.”

To add to their woes, power supply was interrupted in the area.

Residents complained that they felt they were almost cut off from the other areas. Many residents could not go for duty due to the flooding.

Other affected areas

Rains affected other parts of the City as well. Traffic jams at important junctions only worsened the commuters woes. Kempe Gowda Road that leads to Majestic area was choc-a-bloc with heavy vehicular movement.
Shivaji Nagar, Wilson Garden, Avenue Road, Basavanagudi, Lal Bagh and MN Krishna Rao Park were also flooded.
Similar scenes were witnessed in parts of Munireddypalya and Sanjay Nagar where water-logging caused traffic gridlocks.

WEATHER FORECAST

The Director of the Bangalore Meteorological Centre, Dr A Muthuchami said the rains will continue for another two-three days. The City received around 7-cm rainfall in the last couple of days. The cloudy weather is due to the upper air cyclonic system over coastal Karnataka and in the Bay of Bengal near the coastal regions of
Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.