In 5 hours, Bengaluru receives highest rain in 127 years

Rains in five hours since late Monday night brought Bengaluru to its knees with parts of the city receiving the highest rainfall in a day in August in 127 years.

IMAGE: Vehicles lie submerged in a clogged rain water at a basement of an apartment after heavy rain overnight in Bengaluru. Photograph: PTI Photo

The city, which experienced heavy downpour over the past two days, slowly limped back to normalcy on Wednesday with a letup in the rains till evening.

Rains from Monday night to Tuesday morning flooded major roads and drainage water entered houses in low-lying areas.

The city was battered by 12.8 cm rain in five hours from Monday night to Tuesday morning, which is stated to be the highest rainfall in a day in August since 1890.

IMAGE: A resident wades through the clogged rain water at his house in low-lying locality in Bengaluru. Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo

The worst hit was south and eastern parts of Bengaluru-- Koramangala, HSR Layout, Ejipura, Jayanagar, JP Nagar, BTM Layout, Bannerghatta Road and pockets of Indiranagar, where pre-dawn rain and winds snapped power lines, uprooting trees and flooding streets, submerging vehicles.

According to officials of the city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, clogged drains and work on storm water drains not being completed have aggravated the problem, resulting in drainage water flooding the residential areas.

BBMP officials, who came under the line of fire from residents for lack of preparation to deal with such emergencies during the monsoon, struggled to restore normalcy to bring relief to the exasperated people in these areas, some of them considered posh.

Rescue boats were used in several affected residential localities to shift stranded residents, fire officials said.

IMAGE: Children wade through waist-deep water in Bengaluru. Photograph: @rajeev_mp/Twitter

‘Toxic foam’ allegedly due to discharge of sewage water engulfed large part of the polluted Bellandur Lake in the city.

Met department has forecast generally cloudy sky, and likelihood of one or two spells of rain or thundershowers for the city for the next two days.

Following the incessant rains, an under construction five-storied building has tilted and a crack has developed in one of the load bearing pillars at Ejipura, officials
said.