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HT This Day: March 18, 1978 -- Tornado hits North Delhi: 30 dead
A freak tornado hit the University campus area in North Delhi this evening killing at least 24 people (30, ac. cording to Samachar) and injuring over 700 others, about 100 of them seriously.
A freak tornado hit the University campus area in North Delhi this evening killing at least 24 people (30, ac. cording to Samachar) and injuring over 700 others, about 100 of them seriously.
The tornado, which from all accounts lasted less than three minutes taking a narrow corridor of about four sq. kms. along Maurice Nagar towards Mall Road, uprooted scores of trees, electric and telephone poles, blew off several roof tops, causing wall collapses all along and even lifted buses, scooters and cars out of the roads and slammed them by the wayside.
Such was the fury of the whirlwind that even a bus was thrown down the road for nearly a furlong before it dashed against another and came to a standstill.
The roof and walls of the Poor Home at Kingsway Camp collapsed injuring 23 inmates, 10 of them critically. Another badly affected spot was the military lines on Probin Road where roofs of almost all the barracks were blown off and several walls collapsed killing at least three members of a lance naik’s family, including two children.
Bewildered and dazed the residents of the area narrated how the thundersquall had gone off even before they could realise what was happening. A driver of a police nick-un van said the canvas covering of his van was blown off. “I really prayed to God to spare me as I hugged the steering wheel firmly,” he said. Other eye-witnesses also had similar incredible stories to narrate. A foreign student of the International Students Hostel on Mall Road said he saw the storm moving upwards after hitting the campus and the military area.
Cobwebs of electric wires, twisted poles and uprooted trees besides overturned vehicles were seen by those who visited soon afterwards.
One of the transmitters of the All India Radio was also knocked down causing a breakdown of medium wave transmission over Delhi ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ stations of AIR.
The storm appeared to have started off with a severe lightning. It struck a part of the Birla Mills knocking down a roof and some walls and injuring seven persons. “Roofs were flying like kites,” remarked a resident of the area.
It then moved northwards almost along Guru Teg Bahadur Marg from Roshanara Road police station causing havoc all along. Compound walls of Daulat Ram College, S.G.T.B. Khalsa College and
Box - Three of the dead were identified late tonight as: Gobind Gera, 38, Mrs Amar Nath 25, and Raghnnath Singh, SO. Two - ethera were identified as the children of Mrs Amar Nath.
Miranda House collapsed under its impact. A car fell at a distance of over 40 feet.
The roof of the servants’ quarters of Miranda House was also blown off and some of its walls collapsed injuring several inmates.
Had the storm hit parts south, wards of the university campus, the havoc would have been much worse as these areas are much more thickly populated. As it is, the storm appears to have moved along the road from Maurice Nagar to Mall Road. Many persons are also believed to have been thrown into the Najafgarh drain nearby, by the storm and attempts were being made till late in the night to trace them.
Most of the injured, about 300, were removed to JP Hospital, another 400 to Hindu Rae Hospital, and some others to Willingdon (79) and army hospital at Delhi Cantonment.
Some pedestrians and unidentified persons were among those killed. Till late in the night, injured people were being taken to the hospitals.
The roof of a DTC bus depot near Kingsway Camp was also blown off by the tornado.
Scores of fire engines were pressed into service to remove debris and rescue trapped persons. Police had a tough time regulating traffic through the tornado hit area.
A school boy of Kamla Nagar was also reported to be among the dead.
Samachar adds:
Meteorological sources described squall as “very severe” and put its speed at roughly 80 to 90 km. an hour.
“The squall resulted from a depression over north Rajasthan and Haryana moving eastward,” according to Mr H. N. Gupta, meteorological incharge of the Safdarjang Observatory. He said such depressions are known to recur every few years.
Information and Broadcasting Minister L. K. Advani went round the affected areas late in the night.
The imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Abdulla Bukhari, who visited the affected areas said “it is the first time in my life that I have seen a whirlwind of such a magnitude.” He also visited the hospitals and expressed sympathy with the injured and the families of those killed.
According to eyewitnesses, the whole thing was just over in seconds, but there were differing versions. While everybody reported rumblings and noise, some said they saw flashes of fire up in the sky. The whirlwind lifted everything of small weight like wooden gates high up in the air. One witness reported that he saw a man being lifted but it could not be confirmed.
