BHOPAL: The Meteorological Department on Saturday issued red, orange and yellow alerts about very heavy to heavy rains along with blustery winds in 23 districts of Madhya Pradesh for the next 24 hours.
While red alert of excessively heavy rains and high powered winds was issued for five districts in the state's western part, including Khargone, Alirajpur, Dhar, Jhabua and Ratlam, yellow alert of heavy rain and blustery winds was put in nine districts, including Burhanpur, Barwani, Indore, Ujjain, Dewas, Shajapur, Agar-Malwa, Neemuch, Mandsaur and yellow alert of heavy rain in nine other districts of Betul, Harda, Hoshangabad, Bhopal, Vidisha, Khandwa, Rajgarh, Sehore and Raisen.
The alert was issued after heavy rains lashed most parts of the state overnight, resulting in swelling of river
Among the major towns and cities, Indore was the worst hit, recording 263.4 mm rainfall till 8.30 am on Saturday, which broke the previous heaviest rainfall record of 24 hours recorded 39 years ago on August 10, 1981 when the city considered the state's commercial capital had recorded 212.6 mm rainfall.
Several areas of Indore, particularly the low lying areas of the city, among them worst hit North Toda, remained submerged due to heavy rains which continued to lash the city on Saturday also. "Indore has recorded unprecedented rainfall of 12 inch in the last 12 hours, but the SDRF and police teams are engaged in rescue efforts in all rain hit areas, particularly the low-lying areas. Several families have been rescued on boats from worst-hit localities of Hira Nagar, Banganga and North Toda areas," said DIG (Indore) Harinarayan Chari Mishra, who was himself leading the rescue operations in the city.
The state capital Bhopal too saw many of its areas getting inundated with rain water following 210.6 mm rainfall till 8:30 am on Saturday. In the wake of heavy rains lashing most parts of the state, particularly the western and central parts, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan took stock of the situation by holding a meeting of the senior officials in Bhopal.
"Rains bring relief, but also cause devastation. Unprecedented rains have lashed the state, owing to which most dams are replete with water and gates of some dams had to be opened to release excess water. Entire state government machinery in all districts, particularly the SDRF teams have been put on maximum alert to deal with all kinds of emergencies," said Chouhan in a video message.