Summary:
Strong winds reaching up to 100 kmph and heavy rain continued to lash Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, uprooting trees, damaging cranes and tearing down hoardings and awnings.
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Strong winds reaching up to 100 kmph and heavy rain continued to lash Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, uprooting trees, damaging cranes and tearing down hoardings and awnings.
For the second day running, Mumbai received heavy rain, surpassing the annual seasonal average rain of 2,260.4 mm.
Within two months and five days of the monsoon, Mumbai has so far received 2,319.7 mm rain.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called up Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and assured him all possible support.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Maharashtra CM Shri Uddhav Thackeray regarding the situation prevailing in Mumbai and surrounding areas due to heavy rainfall,” the PMO tweeted.
Mumbai’s island city received this season’s most intense showers, recording 229.6 mm rain in nine hours between 8:30 am and 5:30 pm on Wednesday — highest to be recorded in 22 years for August.
Breaking its “all-time” record of the highest 24-hour rain in August, the Colaba observatory recorded 293.8 mm rain ending at 8:30 pm on Wednesday — highest in 46 years.
The Colaba observatory was set up in 1841, while the archive data is available from 1974.
High intensity rain and thunder accompanied by high speed winds reaching up to 70 kmph and occasionally gusting to over 100 kmph were witnessed in south Mumbai on Wednesday evening.
This wind speed is equivalent to the post landfall effect of Severe Cyclonic Storm Nisarga (90-100 kmph) which was recorded in Mumbai on June 3.
The heavy rain and high speed winds caused flooding and massive damage in south Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon.
While no injuries were reported over a hundred trees were uprooted.
The gusty winds destroyed the iconic signage mounted on top of the Bombay Stock Exchange building.
The intensity of the winds also led to the collapse of three of the nine cranes at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Navi Mumbai which are used to move goods from the cargo ships.
Places like Girgaum Chowpatty and Oval Maidan were submerged and many housing societies in these areas were flooded as water entered the premises.
The Mumbai Art Deco Heritage buildings located near Oval Maidan were also flooded.
Areas like Fort, Churchgate, Marine Drive, Girgaum, Breach Candy, Pedder Road, Haji Ali reported water-logging.