Darkness at 4 pm, then dust storm and rain
Traffic chaos after trees uprooted. Hoardings come down crashing, damaging property and injuring people
In a scenario that seemed straight out of a doomsday movie, Lucknow was engulfed in pitch darkness for a few minutes at 4 pm on Tuesday to the shock and horror of its residents.
That was not all. Soon after the dust storm, there was heavy rainfall that threw life out of gear and affected vehicular traffic at its peak hour. People were seen running helter-skelter as sign boards and hoardings swayed precariously due to the gusty winds.
Several trees and hoardings got uprooted and there were reports of some people receiving injuries in mishaps due to the freak weather.
Waterlogging in several areas and power cuts added to the people’s woes.
Similar freak weather was witnessed in some other parts of the state where seven people were reported killed after being struck by lightning. While a woman and her minor sister died in Auraiyya district, three people perished in Mathura, one in Mainpuri and one in Etah.
Several buildings were also reported to have suffered damage and a report from Agra said one of the minarets of Akbar’s Tomb was damaged after being struck by lightning.
Pieces of the white marble stone fell down, but no one was hurt in the incident.
It was the first time in over a decade that the Lucknow witnessed zero visibility on a December afternoon and street lights had to be switched on for commuters, who faced a tough time driving to safety.
Several Lucknowites took to social media to post updates about the storm.
“Never seen such a phenomenon. I had heard about Kaali Aandhi (black storm). Saw it today. Ajeeb lag raha hai....,” a Lucknowite posted on Facebook.
Bobby Ramani, who runs a school in the city, posted, “What has happened to the weather today? It’s just 4, never seen Lucknow that dark before!”
“Has December forgotten that it’s not June,” Seema Singh Katiyar, a degree college teacher posted on social media. Allahabad and Kanpur were also hit by storm and rain that brought down the temperature a little.
LUCKNOW: The sudden rain and thunderstorm threw life out of gear in the state capital on Tuesday evening.
Traffic in almost all the prominent areas of the city remained badly hit after around 50 trees were uprooted and around 20 hoardings came down crashing, damaging public property and injuring people at Balu Adda, Munshipulia, Indira Nagar, Alambagh and Charbagh.
Hussainganj, Hazratganj, Loreto crossing and Gomti Nagar witnessed bumper-tobumper traffic. No traffic cops were present at any crossing of the city because they were busy with election duty, said one of the senior traffic cops.
Around five people were badly injured when a giant hoarding came down crashing at Balu Adda. To add to people’s woes, power supply in almost every area was badly hit.
LESA 1 feeder line tripped after a giant Neem tree fell on a 33 kv line passing through Ganga Khera village. It took a good five hours to repair the line. Due to failure of this feeder, areas of Daroga Khera, Krishna Nagar, LDA Colony Kanpur road, Ashiana, Rae Bareli road, Alambagh and Chander Nagar plunged into darkness. The power supply was not restored till last reports came in.
In a similar incident, a tree also fell on the supply line of Central Power House (CPH) in Alambagh after which Sujanpura, Tehripulia, Patel Naagr, Adarsh nagar, Shanti Nagar, Chhota Barha, Bada Barha, Pawan Puri, Geetapalli and Sardari Khera areas plunged into darkness for more than five hours. Power supply had not resumed till last reports came in.
Despite spending around `500 crore on maintenance of lines and transformers in last five years, LESA is apparently still under prepared to tackle storms/rains, said Avadhesh Kumar Varma, chairman, UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad.
Nearly 90% of the city went powerless after Tuesday’s storm, mainly due to the electricity infrastructure not being able to withstand the inclement weather. The main transmission line to Alambagh crashed while other lines to Vishal Khand, Vibhuti Khand in Gomti Nagar and Munshipulia also crashed.
Meanwhile, 132 kv Victoria Street supply line transformer developed technical snag after a hoarding fell on it. All the nine sub-stations connected with the Neembu park The LESA has
“Cities like Wellington are considered most windy, but no power cut is reported there despite winds blowing at 90-100 km/hour. If these tiny places can develop a system to ensure uninterrupted power supply during storms, then why can’t our engineers do the same? asked Varma.
LESA GM SK Varma said infrastructure can’t be changed overnight, but one must appreciate the fact that despite such a big thunderstorm, engineers were working hard to restore power supply in the city.