BENGALURU: Bengaluru witnessed the second highest rainfall in the last 15 years at 105.5 mm on Monday, bringing life to a wearisome crawl for all. Three were plain unlucky as they perished in the pre-monsoon misery. A 63-year-old man and 12-year-old boy were electrocuted in Mico Layout, while a 35-year-old woman housekeeper died when a compound wall collapsed in Whitefield.
Water entered the lives of people--roads were turned into rivers, homes and apartments were flooded, vehicles got submerged, and trees uprooted, leading to power cuts and frustrating traffic snarls across the city.
According to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials, heavy downpour started at around 2 am and continued unabated till 5.30 am on Monday. The relentless rains in no time flooded Austin Town’s Vannerpet, Ashwini Layout in Ejipura, ST Bed in Koramangala, Wilson Garden, Neelasandra, Anepalya, BTM Layout, Silk Board, HBR layout, HSR Layout, Hennur, Sai Layout in K R Puram, Panathur, Nagawara, Manyata Techpark and Bellandur areas.
Rescue teams deployed boats, tractors and earth movers to rescue the stranded public, with some of them accommodated in the shelters arranged by the civic body.
Hundreds of residents were stranded, sleepless, in their flooded homes, many without access to food and drinking water and their properties and belongings damaged due to the floods. Many vehicles, including cars were submerged in the floods.
Despite Bengaluru getting flooded frequently, exposing the city’s poor infrastructure incapable of handling heavy rain, successive-governments seem to have learnt no lesson and seem to take its own sweet time to fix the issues, citizens lambasted the government and the babus.
