Bracing for storm that wasn’t, all 900 power feeders in Gurugram were shut down

GURUGRAM: A sunny Tuesday morning came as a surprise. Everyone had expected a big storm. Because if there was ever an example of a storm being talked up, leading to general panic, this was it.
The chain reaction of panic began on Sunday with the Haryana government shutting down all schools for two days, anticipating a big storm. All kinds of advisories followed, including one from an RWA in Gurugram that urged residents to stock up a month’s doses of medicines. Ghaziabad closed all schools and colleges on Tuesday, as did half a dozen schools in Noida.



And late on Monday, just as the winds started picking up, power was switched off in all of Gurugram with all 900 electricity feeders in the city being shut down for an hour between 11.30pm and 12.30am. The storm that hit Gurugram blew at a modest 50kmph and, other than kicking up clouds of dust, passed by in a couple of hours much more calmly than anticipated. In Delhi, the winds were slightly stronger at 64kmph.

The disproportionate anxiety might have been provoked by the May 2 storm that had led to 112 deaths in Rajasthan and UP but it also showed a communication gap between the weather department and government departments. The weather department, for instance, had never predicted a very strong storm in NCR — it had forecast winds speeds of 70kmph that eventually “mellowed down” to 50 — but expert opinion may have drowned in the surround sound of hyper caution and government advisories.

Residents said they had braced for a big storm. “Since (Monday) morning, we had been getting all kinds of advisories. Thus, at night, I brought my daughter from her room and made her sleep with me,” said Chaitali Mandotra, a resident of Sector 52 in Gurugram. “Apart from the immediate shutdown of power supply, we did not feel or face anything unusual on Monday night,” said Naved Khan, a resident of Sector 69.

Met officials said the storm had weakened as the western disturbance zoomed past Delhi-NCR.

The IMD’s regional centre at Palam Vihar recorded a wind speed of 50 kmph, which was less than the wind speed that the May 2 storm had brought (59 kmph). “In Gurugram, we are likely to witness clear skies from Wednesday. The temperature is also going to increase and by May 13 and 14, the maximum temperature would breach the 40 degree-Celsius mark,” said an official at the Regional Weather Forecasting Centre. On Tuesday, the maximum temperature was 35 degrees Celsius and the minimum stood at 26 degrees Celsius. On Wednesday, too, the maximum temperature is likely to remain the same.

Apart from TV news channels, newspapers and radio, social media was abuzz with talk about the storm. People took to Twitter and Facebook to air their opinion and everyone had the same question — where is the storm? A message that was widely circulated on WhatsApp summed up the feeling —“Feeling cheated by Met department. Kids are running around at 35km/hr in house, whereas the maximum wind speed for the day in NCR is 13km/hr. What is more dangerous”.

The discom was flooded with phone calls from residents, complaining about power cuts. Residents in different parts of the city claimed intermitted power cuts continued through the night. “It started around 10pm on Monday and normal supply resumed only at 10am on Tuesday morning,” said Dinesh Vashishta, RWA president, Sector 5.

Discom officials said the shutdown was deliberate to avoid major multiple faults and the supply was resumed by Tuesday morning. “All 1kV power lines were shut down. Winds were blowing at 50–60 kmphr. Obviously, it is risky. So the system had to be shut down. But by 12.30am, we had restored the entire supply. There might have been a few individual cases of outages but we haven’t received any report so far. They will be addressed individually,” an official said.