Record-breaking rainfall leaves Tricity residents stranded and causes widespread damage

Tricity region comprising Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula woke up to the region’s heaviest and highest-ever rainfall recorded in the recent past. It threw normal life out of gear and poured lots of pain and misery on the residents.

Since it was the morning time, the office goers were the worst-hit and majority of them could not reach their destinations, resultantly very thin presence was witnessed at the workplaces.

The downpour started on Tuesday night and poured incessantly and heavily till Wednesday morning leaving the Tricity almost deluged. Intermittent rain continued till late evening.

The Sukhna flood gates were today opened for the ninth record time this monsoon after Sukhna Lake breached the danger mark of 1,163-foot, leading to flooding of Sukhna Choe, a seasonal stream coming down from the Shivalik Hills.

While the Ghaggar river also remained swollen, the seasonal rivulets Patiala Ki Rao, Jayanti Ki Rao and other nullahs and water bodies in the tricity were overflowing. This led to flooding of Kishangarh, Bapu Dham Colony, Industrial Areas, Bhankharpur, Zirakpur, Dera Bassi, Morni, Barwala, Pinjore, Raipur Rani and other catchment areas.

Several roads, bridges and causeways were washed away in the gushing waters.

Chandigarh periphery areas in Mohali and Panchkula were the worst-hit as they virtually floated in the deluge. The stretches of 200-foot-wide road leading to the international airport and several other major roads and busy junctions in the Tricity turned into a full-fledged river with gushing waters taking toll on the moving vehicular traffic.

Hundreds of vehicles got stuck on the flooded roads. However, it was only after several hours of ordeal that the situation started limping back to normal. Till the reports last came in, some roads, bridges and causeways were still under knee-deep water and were closed for vehicular traffic.

Elsewhere in the Tricity, rainwater entering houses, shops, godowns and even government offices remained the order of the day. This resulted in heavy loss of property. While the standing crops, kutcha houses and sheds in the villages were also shattered in the monsoon mayhem, no more loss of life was reported from any part of the Tricity region till the reports last came in.

In Chandigarh, the situation was a bit better than Mohali and Panchkula, but almost all the roads and roundabouts had turned into water bodies.

The record 133-mm rainfall in Panchkula followed by 91.4-mm in Chandigarh and 73.5-mm in Mohali, which the weathermen recorded during the past 24 hours once again proved beyond doubt that there was a total collapse of the drainage system, which turned out to be almost non-existent.

Even as few traffic cops were seen manning the badly blocked vehicular traffic on city roads, all the major junctions -- Tribune Chowk, Labour Chowk, ISBT-43, ISBT-17, JW Marriott, Press Chowk, Transport Chowk, Madhya Marg and southern pockets of the city witnessed heavy traffic jams with traffic signals going off and traffic policemen seldom seen to clear the logjam.

At several places, the trees and poles (both electricity and telephone) got uprooted and damaged vehicles besides blocking passages. This also snapped power and water supply besides telephone/internet services in several parts of the Tricity.

As far as Mohali and Panchkula were concerned, they also witnessed a flood-like situation with normal life going up for a toss. Rainwater playing havoc and deluge causing heavy losses to the property hit the residents hard.

Officials, on their part, termed it as an “unexpected and unavoidable” situation, which they claimed was handled “timely and efficiently” but the battered residents were not convinced with their tall claims and sought their accountability.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for heavy rain coupled with thunderstorm and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh and Haryana on Thursday after which it predicted normal weather till next Tuesday when there is again forecast for another spell of heavy rain.

In Tricity, the weathermen have predicted generally and partially cloudy skies with thunderstorms and rain till September 8 during which the day and night temperature is likely to remain between maximum 33 and minimum 24 degree Celsius.