BENGALURU: The joy of rain was short lived as the thunderstorm, accompanied by strong winds and hail, turned roads into rivers, felled many trees and branches, disrupted power supply and threw traffic into chaos.
Silk Board, HSR Layout, Nagawara, JP Nagar, KR Circle, Richmond Circle, Seshadripuram and Shanthinagar witnessed water logging. Chamarajpet, Cottonpet, Binnypet, Subhash Nagar, Jagjivan Ram Nagar, KR Market, Majestic, Gavipuram, Hanumantha Nagar, VV Puram, Bommanahalli, Pulikeshinagar, Palace Guttahalli, BTM Layout, Kengeri, Basaveshwara Nagar and Mysore Road were among the areas that witnessed heavy rain. Corridors of Vidhana Soudha too were filled with rainwater.
Underpasses at KR Circle, Basavanagudi, Shivananda Circle and Silk Board were closed as they were flooded. Power outages were reported from many locations as trees fell on electric lines.
The GBA said, 170 trees were uprooted and 408 branches fell, not only damaging properties and vehicles but also blocking roads, leading to severe traffic jams across the city. GBA said 118 trees and branches were removed. While the rain damage was high in Bengaluru Central, South and West Corporations, North and East witnessed no major issues. GBA Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao instructed officials to resolve rain-related issues within three hours. On Church Street, as rainwater gushed into a bookshop, books worth nearly Rs 15 lakh were damaged.
A businessman, Mahesh Ananthram Singh, who was driving home, escaped with a fracture on his left hand and after a tree fell on his SUV near Sankey Road.