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The rainfall that lashed the city on November 23 was the highest recorded in the month of November in the last 44 years, says India Meteorological Department (IMD), Bangalore.

In fact, the 108.4 mm of rainfall that the City received on November 23 had been the third highest since 1916!

“On November 9, 1916, the city recorded 114.5 mm and on November 24, 1969, it received 114 mm of rainfall. The only highest rainfall after that was on November 23. Between 8:30 and 9:30 pm alone, the city got 52 mm of rainfall,” said B Puttanna, director-in-charge, IMD, Bangalore.

Puttanna added that one or two spells of rain/thundershowers would occur in some areas of the city and the minimum temperature would be around 19 degrees Celsius for the next 48 hours.

The Met department stated that the deep depression has further moved northwestwards and intensified into a cyclonic storm called “Lehar”. It also predicted that rain accompanied by thundershowers would occur at many places over coastal Karnataka, at a few places over south interior Karnataka and at isolated places over north interior Karnataka.

Meanwhile, residents of the city were left reeling on Sunday under the effects of the severe rain.

Roads were blocked as fallen trees and branches were not cleared, residents were spotted pumping water out of their basements and houses, store owners rued their losses as materials from the shops were strewn on the streets. For instance, around 60 shops on Seppings Road were flooded and groceries made their way to the road.

Officials of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike ( BBMP) told water had already been pumped out from several houses that were inundated. “Gangmen were sent immediately to Kamakhya locality near Devegowda Petrol Bunk where 20 houses were flooded and also to 11 houses at Krishnappa Garden. There has been no complaint received from the public on Sunday about water logging,”  Palike spokesperson S S Khandre told Deccan Herald. 

City in charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy and Mayor B S Sathyanarayana visited several of affected areas and directed officials to desilt storm water drains.

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) officials received more than 5,100 complaints regarding the power cuts, power fluctuation, falling of electric poles, fuse problem from the city and surrounding areas.

Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) control rooms too were buzzing with complaints on November 24 about the sanitary overflow and sewage problems.

“We received 53 complaints wherein people rued that due to the downpour there had been sanitary pipeline leakage at several areas such as Magadi Road, Richmond Town, Telecom Colony and Shrirampuram,” said BWSSB Engineer-in-Chief, T Venkataraju.