39 killed as Sunday storm wreaks havoc
WARNING IMD says more in store for Uttarakhand, J&K, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh
NEW DELHI: At least 39 people were killed and many more injured as severe storms accompanied by heavy rain, lightning and gusty wind swept through large swathes of the country on Sunday, although the deaths were reported in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
According to the UP government, 21 people died and 25 injured in the storm.
A government spokesperson said chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed district magistrates and commissioners to provide relief to the storm-affected people and adequate medical care to the injured.
In West Bengal, nine people died — four of them were children struck by lightning when they were at a mango orchard in Howrah district’s Uluberia. Nadia and West Midnapore districts reported two deaths each while one person died in Murshidabad.
According to the state disaster management department, Sunday’s toll took the total number of storm-related deaths in West Bengal to 46 since April 30.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said her government will provide compensation to the families of the dead and help people rebuild storm-ravaged houses. “This is unfortunate. But we do not have control over natural calamities,” she said.
News agency PTI reported from Amaravati that nine peo- ple died from lightning and three were injured in Srikakulam and Kadapa districts of Andhra Pradesh. Officials said seven people were killed in Srikakulam district alone. Lightning struck several places in Srikakulam since afternoon even as rain, coupled with strong gale-force winds, lashed the district.
Rain was also reported from Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts.
UP government officials said a tourist from Maharashtra was critically injured when a tree fell on him in Vrindavan. Mathura parliamentarian Hema Malini was stranded on the road for some time as a storm-felled tree blocked the route when she was on the way to Naujheel. It was removed to let her car pass.
According to Kasganj additional superintendent of police Pavitra Mohan Tripathi, two women and a man were killed when a wall of their house in Parsoli village collapsed in the thunderstorm. A teenager was crushed to death in Barona village when high-velocity winds overturned a tractor trolley carrying cattle fodder overturned and it fell on him.
Officials monitoring the situation said eight district of Agra and Aligarh division were affected by thunderstorms this summer and the region faced extensive destruction in three major storms since April 11.
Several parts of Punjab also got light rain. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted that the hill states of Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are likely to get thunderstorms on Monday, while parts of Rajasthan might see a dust storm.
The subsequent effect on the plains of northern India is also predicted.
The forecast is for thunderstorms and squall with wind speed reaching up to 70kmph at isolated places over eastern UP, the Northeast, West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand. Gusty winds are likely in Punjab, Haryana, western UP, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Telangana, north coastal Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Kerala.