City feels Tauktae’s fury

Cyclone Tauktae on Monday passed Mumbai’s coastline, followed by heavy rain and gusty wind at speed of up to 114kmph in several areas, especially south Mumbai and suburbs, which saw heavy rainfall waterlogging

Cyclone Tauktae on Monday passed Mumbai’s coastline, followed by heavy rain and gusty wind at speed of up to 114kmph in several areas, especially south Mumbai and suburbs, which saw heavy rainfall waterlogging. Two people are feared to have drowned in boat mishaps off Mahim and Madh. Owing to high wind speeds through the day, a total of 479 tree falls were reported in the city. In the city, 26 incidents of wall collapses were reported, in which eight people were injured in three separate incidents. This was followed by 17 incidents of short circuit. However, no injuries were reported due to the same.

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Of the eight injured, four were injured due to a wall collapsing on four family members during repair in their house, followed by three injured in Borivli (East) as part of a crane fell on their house. All three were discharged from the hospital post treatment. Further, another incident of slab collapse was reported in Andheri where a woman was injured due to the same. According to BMC, the woman’s condition is stable, and her treatment is ongoing at a private hospital.

On Monday, in two separate incidents at Mahim and Madh, 10 people were stuck inside a boat, of which two people are feared to have drowned, according to BMC’s disaster management cell. In the case of Madh, five people were stuck in a boat due to rough sea, of which four were rescued, however, one is feared to have drowned. In the case of the incident at Mahim, five people were stuck in a boat of which two people came back to Madh jetty by swimming, one is feared drowned and two are still stuck inside the boat for which rescue operations are ongoing by the coastal police.

Further, low lying areas like Hindmata, Parel, Dadar reported water logging on Monday followed by Peddar Road, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai Central, Oval Maidan, Warden Road, Colaba also reported water logging on Monday. According to BMC officials, south Mumbai was the most hit as the cyclone went from south to north further towards Gujarat.

In central Mumbai, several areas like Hindmata, King Circle, Dadar TT followed by several areas in Worli including Worli Koliwada also reported water logging on Monday. In South Mumbai and central Mumbai, 13 locations reported waterlogging, according to the BMC, followed by seven locations reporting waterlogging in the suburbs.

In case of suburbs, Milan subway, Santacruz; Andheri subway; Malad subway; Vakola, Malwani, Borivli, Dahisar also reported waterlogging due to heavy rainfall. Several areas in eastern suburbs, including Kurla, Ghatkopar, Chembur also reported waterlogging on Monday. According to BMC officials, waterlogging was reported more in south and central Mumbai, considering it received more rainfall at isolated locations. The intensity of cyclone and its after effects was felt more in south Mumbai. On Monday, the highest wind speed of 114 kmph was reported around 2pm near the Afghan Church area in Colaba. In areas like Worli, Malabar Hill along with Grant Road, Mumbai central, overall more than 400mm rain was recorded. In the city, on an average, 105 mm of rain was reported on Monday between 8am and 5pm, followed by 61mm in eastern suburbs and 114mm in western suburbs.

Activist Nikhil Desai, from Dadar said, “Like every year even this year we had water logging in King Circle and Hindmata area. Though the rainfall was not expected this early, but this shows that we are not prepared for the monsoon like every year. I do not know how much underground rainwater storage tank work is completed, but it is the truth that minutes of rainfall resulted in Hindmata and King Cricle’s Gandhi Market got flooded.” In the city, out of the total 479 tree fall reported, 245 were in western suburbs, 156 in south Mumbai and 78 in eastern suburbs. During the day, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar took stock of the situation by visiting several locations followed by guardian minister Aaditya Thackeray taking a meeting with the BMC officials to plan the way ahead.

Following the meeting, Thackeray posted on Twitter: “We are doing everything we can to keep you safe. The BMC has begun to clear out fallen trees with every breather we get in the pattern of strong winds and heavy rain. We are working to ensure normalcy at the earliest. Today’s cyclone hit wind speeds of 114kmph, highest ever for Mumbai in any recent records. This is a climatic pattern that we have started studying, along with its maximum impact points, water logging areas and types of trees that are damaged. Our 3 jumbo covid care centres that have been vacated as precautions, will now be taken up for maintenance and repairs over the next 10 days.”

Following the shifting of over 500 Covid-19 patients from three jumbo centres at BKC, Dahisar and Mulund, the BMC on Monday said these centres will now remain shut for maintenance. According to BMC officials, they will undertake overall fire and structural audit of the centres to ensure to be prepared for the upcoming monsoon season to align with the anticipated third wave between July and September.

However, no citizens from the coastal areas such as Worli, Bandra, Versova and Gorai were shifted owing to the cyclone. According to BMC officials, they had undertaken preparations for shifting of the citizens but there was no such requirement for the same. Hence, we did not shift them.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the BMC’s disaster management cell received 4,848 calls for civic emergency owing to the heavy rainfall and high wind speed.

Meanwhile, the opposition Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP), slammed the BMC over its monsoon preparedness.

Ravi Raja, Congress corporator and leader of opposition in the BMC, said, “Everything got exposed on Monday as there were waterlogging and tree falls across the city. The drainages across the city were cleaned and their silt was kept outside, but after today’s rainfall all the silt went inside the drains again.”

SP corporator Rais Shaikh said, “Tauktae cyclone put Mumbai on high alert on Monday and every year crores of rupees are spent for pre-monsoon work, yet we experience overflowing sewage lines. I have requested BMC commissioner to inquire into the same and take action against the officers who have delayed pre-monsoon work.”

P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, said, “What happened on Monday was bound to happen considering the intensity of the rain was too much in a span of four hours when city received maximum rainfall. Between 10am and 2pm on Monday in several areas more than 120mm rain was recorded, and if such intensity of rainfall is received waterlogging may be reported...We had installed water-sucking pumps at 15 locations in the city and five pumping stations were activated. In case of Hindmata, the work for rainwater tunnel work is ongoing and is expected to be completed by June 10, due to which we reported water logging there.”

Heavy rain led to power cuts in various parts. The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, which supplies electricity to the island city, received 60 complaints of power disruptions through the day. There was no major outage, said the BEST in a statement. Suburbs, too ,saw power cuts.

Many areas like Andheri (W), Vile Parle, Kalina, Versova and Kurla experienced power cuts. Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML) which distributes power to rhe suburbs said its teams rushed to the spot and restored electricity within an hour.

“To ensure the continuity of power supply and mitigate any disruptions owing to the cyclone Taukte and heavy rains, team AEML took all the necessary precautions. Our specialized Quick Response Teams were on standby and ensured, wherever there was power disruption complaints, the supply was restored with the minimum interruption,” said an AEML spokesperson.

Supply in eastern suburbs like Mulund, Bhandup and Vikhroli too was disrupted in various parts. Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) in its press statement said that maximum impact was felt in Sindhudurga and Ratnagiri.