UNUSUALLY heavy overnight rains pounding Bengaluru brought the country’s IT capital to its knees on Monday, with the monsoon-time scenes of inundation, people wading through water and evacuation by inflatables playing out on the streets of this cosmopolitan city. A 35 year-old woman died after a rain-soaked wall collapsed on her, while uprooted trees added to the woes of the people and the administration. Opposition BJP mounted an offensive against the ruling Congress, alleging that the crores of rupees spent over the last two years on the city’s infrastructure have yielded no results. It attacked Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru in-charge D K Shivakumar for the state of affairs, even as the latter admitted Bengaluru’s problems were not new but that the government was now working for a long-term fix.

 

With an average rainfall of 10.5 cm last night, Bengaluru found itself deploying dinghies with essential supplies to sending tractor trailers to the rescue of those stranded in knee-deep water. This time too it was no exception for Sri Sai Layout, infamous for flooding the moment it rains. The low-lying area again flooded up to chest level, forcing people, including senior citizens, to wade through it, before the tractor trolleys came to their rescue. A local MLA, Byrathi Basavaraj climbed on top of an earth mover and inspected the layout developed by the Bangalore Development Authority.

 

A State Natural Disaster Response Force officer said no one had ever expected such a heavy rain in Bengaluru. Weather watchers said such heavy downpour in May is not common. According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data, Bengaluru city received 105.5 mm of rainfall during the 24 hour period ending 8.30 am on May 19. The last time it rained this heavy here during this month was on May 18, 2022. Incidentally, all-time record for May stands at 153.9 mm, which was set on May 6, 1909. Several parts of TN receive heavy rain: Several parts in Tamil Nadu, including Chennai and suburbs, experienced moderate and isolated heavy rain, providing much respite to the residents this summer. Overnight rain that continued in a few places over Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Ulunthurpet, Mayiladuthurai and certain other districts owing to the upper air circulation over the Bay of Bengal that moved towards the Tamil Nadu coast, plunged the temperatures.

 

he sudden rain on Monday morning took many office goers by surprise. As of May 19, there were favourable conditions for further advancement of the South West Monsoon over some parts of the South Arabian Sea, Maldives and Comorin area; parts of the South Bay of Bengal; the central Bay of Bengal, and some more parts of north-east Bay of Bengal during next two to three days. “This would fetch rain for Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal region,” says B Amudha, head of IMD’s Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai. Giving an update on the SW Monsoon, she said the upper air cyclonic circulation over Southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal would fetch some rainfall for the next two days over Tamil Nadu.