Downpour hits city, several pockets flooded

Much to the joy of the students, many prominent schools declared a holiday on Monday

LUCKNOW: With continuous rain lashing the state capital since Sunday, many schools declared a ‘rainy day’ on Monday.

Many students were overjoyed as their parents received the message that the school was closed due to heavy rain.

However, others who did not receive such a message had great difficulty in reaching their institutions.

The schools that remained closed were St Francis College, St Agnes’ Loreto Day School, Loreto Convent, Mount Carmel, City Montessori School, LDA branch and many others. There will be regular schools from Tuesday.

The school authorities felt that as several parts of the city were inundated, there was no point in calling the students to school because it would enetail difficulties for them.

Though the rain stopped around 7 am on Monday, there was no respite from water logging, as several pockets in the city were inundated.

People faced great difficulties in reaching their destinations as several lanes and by-lanes remained flooded .

Visitors in several areas had to wade through knee-deep or even waist deep water.

“Things cannot change unless the road level is raised and proper stormwater drains are built. Pumping out water is a temporary measure and not a permanent solution,” said Alok Mishra, a resident of Ganeshganj.

Commuting on the inundated roads was even more difficult.

The rain water also entered several houses.

“It is such a pain to drain out water from your home. Rain water entered into our living room. We had to spend the entire night in draining it out,” said Rama Kant, a resident of Alambagh

Several residents in Old Lucknow used their personal water pumps to drain out water from their houses .

“It rained heavily on Sunday and then again on early Monday morning. With no help from authorities, we used water pumps to drain out water,” said Rakesh Gupta, a resident of Daliganj .

The met department has predicted partly cloudy sky with rain/thunder showers very likely in some areas.

The maximum temperature on Monday was recorded at 31.6 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal.

The minimum temperature was 23.2 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal.

DEEPAK GUPTA AND SUBHANKAR CHAKRABORTY / HT PHOTOS

After the heavy rain on Sunday and Monday, rainwater also entered several houses in the state capital. People were forced to wade through neck and waisthigh water. (Below) The road in front of Indira Bhawan caved in on Monday.