The Hindu : National : Rain abates in Maharashtra

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Monday, Jul 02, 2007
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National

Rain abates in Maharashtra

Arunkumar Bhatt

MUMBAI: The monsoon fury subsided in Maharashtra on Sunday, with capital Mumbai limping back to normality. The death toll in the downpour and the resultant floods rose to 48.

Government sources said 10 persons died in Thane and five each in Mumbai, Kolhapur and Pune. Four persons lost their lives in Nagpur and Nashik. Six died of flood-related incidents in the Konkan. The rain and flood toll in Amravati, Vidarbha, reached 5. Seven were reported missing.

The flood in the Konkan towns of Ratnagiri, Chiplun, Khed and Mahad receded and the water-level dropped from Saturday’s five feet to three feet.

Army help

Army units are helping the local authorities in Ratnagiri and Chiplun in evacuating and providing relief to the flood-affected. Rain abated in Kolhapur and Sangli in south-west Maharashtra but the flood situation persisted.

All eight State roads passing through the districts were under water. The waters of the Panchganga and the Warana inundated thousands of acres of farm land, turning several villages into islands. In Sangli, the Krishna remained close to the danger mark.

Irrigation department sources said the Hatanoor reservoir on the Tapti was full and the authorities had to release 3.71 lakh cusecs water. Over a lakh cusecs were released from the Khadakvasala following heavy downpour in its catchment areas in Sahyadri. All reservoirs in the State were filled 10 to 50 per cent. But Urmodi in Satara and Kavadas in Thane were full.

In Mumbai, life limped back to normal as rail, road and air traffic moved at near regular pace. But the showers and intermittent heavy rains continued to pound the city and suburbs but their intensity was considerably lower compared to Saturday.

The city recorded 848 mm rain since Saturday, 270 mm more than the normal and the suburbs received 1006.4 mm, 433 mm in excess.

More rains likely

The weather bureau continued to forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places, particularly in Konkan.

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