Mumbai: As Mumbai limped backed to normal after a day of torrential rains and a dangerous, nightmarish situation, five people have been reported killed in Mumbai and Thane due to the deluge.
Four people were washed away in Palghar, Thane district, in separate incidents, including a three-year-old girl who was travelling with her relative on a motorcycle that skidded causing the girl to fall in the flood waters. She was washed away and her body recovered later. One person died when a building crashed in Vikhroli, Mumbai.
The meteorological department had sounded a red alert for a heavy downpour Wednesday and as a precaution, the Maharashtra government had ordered closure of all schools and colleges and asked all non-essential staff to stay home if the rains continued. Many banks and offices also asked their staff to stay home today. Fortunately, Mumbaikars got a break as the rainfall was low with the sun peeping out in the afternoon as water in flooded areas receded.
Suburban train services were back on track, with Central Railway on a slow start, but a rainy morning dissuaded many people from venturing out to their places of work.
The downpour on Tuesday broke all records in 10 years as people had to wade through in waist-deep water in many places and forced to walk for several kilometres during the evening rush hour — a nightmare that brought back memories of the 2005 cloudburst that had led to severe flooding and the loss of nearly 1,000 lives in India’s financial capital. The city was then unprepared and continues to be so as the disaster management control wing of the government took its own time to come to people’s aid.
Once again it was the spirit of Mumbai or the ‘Good Samaritan’ response of ordinary people that came to the rescue of many who were stranded miles away from their homes. On Tuesday night, industrialist Anand Mahindra tweeted, reacting to a BBC News (World) tweet: “Houston floods: Night curfew bid to stop robbery and looting” that “And here in Mumbai, a friend stuck in a car to the airport for 5 hrs told me that slum dwellers came out to serve stranded people.”
While all religious places opened their doors to people caught in the floods, the Indian Navy’s community kitchens provided food and breakfast Wednesday morning at Churchgate, Byculla, Parel, CST, Worli, Tardeo, Mumbai Central Dadar, Mankhurd, Chembur, Malad and Ghatkopar. The Navy also put up four rain shelters to provide a safe haven and basic food, water and first aid for Mumbaikars.
There were huge accolades for the Mumbai Police, as was the case in 2005, for taking stock of the situation when traffic stood still, flood waters raged and citizens had to struggle to reach home.
Operations at the airport were back to normal though Jet Airways stated that the rains had disrupted their flights and therefore 19 flights were cancelled Wednesday including flights to Kuwait and Jeddah. Interestingly, passengers arriving at Mumbai’s airport on Tuesday refused to exit the premises knowing well there was no transport to take them home even though the Mumbai International Airport Limited had arranged buses to main junctions of Mumbai city. They spent the night at the airport, even sleeping on conveyor belts.
Even though the damage to people’s confidence in the government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) went deep, Geeta Mishra, a formal schoolteacher, said: “We citizens are also responsible for the state of affairs since many of us discard garbage anywhere, especially plastic that clogs the drains. It is time we separated wet and dry garbage and demanded that the BMC came up with better waste management.”
More than 30,000 civic personnel were pumping out water in several locations, removing 247 trees that were uprooted and cleared 5,000 metric tonnes of garbage Wednesday morning. The BMC commissioner appealed to Mumbaikars to seek medical help if anyone was suffering from fever, headache and/or vomiting and not to indulge in self-medication.
Despite the extreme conditions, Afroz Shah, the man who initiated Versova beach clean-up drive successfully, said in his Twitter handle, “Week 99. Cleanup ends at 2.00am 5 hrs of work in inclement weather. Doing my bit for my ocean, my planet & my country. Thank you volunteers.”
