BHOPAL: Unprecedentedly heavy rains accompanied by blustery winds followed by flash floods over the last two and half days have cast their shadow on a large part of Madhya Pradesh, including capital Bhopal, which witnessed the fiercest rain in the last 24-48 hours since 2016.
Over 400 people have been rescued by the SDRF and NDRF teams from various flood-hit areas in parts of Vidisha, Rajgarh, Ashok Nagar, Raisen, Jabalpur, Mandla, Sidhi, and Guna districts, where heavy rains have put all major rivers in spate and most dams are either overflowing or replete with water, forcing the opening of their gates to release excess water.
The state capital Bhopal, which has been reporting rain since the last 54 hours, witnessed the fiercest rain in the last 24-36 hours. The capital city reported 7.5-inch rain in the last 24 hours, which was the heaviest since the deadly rain of 2016.
Along with rains, the blustery winds blowing at a speed of 33-34 kmph have brought the temperatures down drastically.
Heavy rains and flooding of ponds and lakes, besides dams, have submerged over 200 residential localities of Bhopal, a large part of which is in the dark due to continued electricity shut down and faults in around 50 residential localities. The Misrod area of the city, particularly, is facing a flood-like situation. Dozens of trees have been uprooted all across the city, which is already on high-security alert owing to the day-long presence of union home minister Amit Shah for a slew of major events.
In Bhopal, a young motorbike rider was killed after coming in contact with an uprooting tree near Tarun Pushkar.
Owing to extremely bad weather conditions, the closure of schools in Bhopal, Sehore, Rajgarh, Vidisha, Raisen and Sagar districts has been extended for Tuesday also.
All major rivers in central MP, Mahakoshal and west MP are in spate, with the mighty river Narmada likely to cross the danger mark by midnight.
As per reports, prolonged rains which are likely to continue on Tuesday also, have badly affected life in around 27 districts of Bhopal, Narmadapuram, Gwalior and Jabalpur divisions.
In Vidisha, a stop dam built just a year back in Islam Nagar area of Lateri block developed major breach, resulting in massive release of water through the crops in 10-12 adjoining villages. In the same central MP district’s Basoda area, the district administration has sought urgent help from the Indian Air Force (IAF) to airlift over 100 villagers, taking shelter on terraces of houses owing to flash floods.
In Guna district of Gwalior region, three villagers remained stuck on an island owing to flash floods in the Pipliya village of Bamori area.
In the adjoining Ashok Nagar district, five people on the way from Bhopal to Ashok Nagar were swept away in a flooded nullah. While three of them swam to safety and spent their night on trees, two others, including a newly elected village sarpanch are missing.
Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department has sounded red alert of extremely heavy rains in districts of Ujjain and Indore divisions, as well as Rajgarh districts in the next 24 hours, orange alert of heavy to very rains in districts of Gwalior and Narmadapuram divisions as well as Vidisha, Raisen, Sehore and Bhopal districts. A yellow alert has been sounded in Jabalpur and Sagar districts as well as districts of Chambal division over the same period.