Two hours of heavy rain brings Lucknow to its knees
LUCKNOW: Two hours of downpour on Thursday evening brought the Uttar Pradesh capital to its knees, with most areas inundated with water and traffic snarl ups bringing the city traffic to a grinding halt. It started raining at around 6 pm and the heavy rains continued till 8.15 pm, leaving hundreds of people stranded under bridges, trees and bus shelters. Power outages have been reported from many places.
AGRA/MUZAFFARNAGAR: Heavy showers overnight pounded parts of west Uttar Pradesh including Agra and Muzaffarnagar since Wednesday, leaving 13 people dead, including nine in Agra, and cutting off many neighbourhoods.
Dolly, 4 was killed in Dhanoli village, Ram Laxman, 54, in Nagla Lale village of Etmadpur and Nitin Kumar, 21 and Ram Kailash, 22 in Rasoolpur village, said CDO Ravindra Kumar.
The district administration has announced a compensation of ₹4 lakh to kin of the deceased.
With the weather office forecasting more rains for Thursday and Friday, the situation is likely to worsen, residents feared. Most schools observed a holiday on Thursday. They will remain closed on Friday too. Water entered houses in Dayalbagh area and in Shastripuram, hundreds of houses were in kneedeep water. In rural areas, police said there were reports of houses collapsing. A few shops on Hospital Road caved in. “The rains began around 10 pm on Wednesday and picked up intensity after midnight. The showers continued till 9am. At one point it looked like the skies had opened up,” said Padmini, a homemaker.
The Agra stadium and the Sur Sadan crossing along the busy Sanjay Place commercial complex were flooded. Light vehicles were nearly swept away by the rain waters gushing through the streets. Tourist guide Ved Gautam said: “There were very few tourists at the Taj Mahal which looked fresh and sparkled white after the heavy showers rinsed its surface clean. ”In Muzaffarnagar, heavy rain on Thursday afternoon threw life out of gear, with most low-lying areas getting water-logged, as a result of which school children faced difficulty reaching home.
Some shopkeepers on GT Road had to down shutters as roads were inundated. Muzaffarnagar has been experiencing heavy rain for the last three days.