Bengaluru weather: Yellow alert sounded today as rain batters city

BENGALURU: Two persons were killed in Bengaluru, around 3,000 houses flooded, and properties worth lakhs of rupees were damaged in heavy rain that battered Bengaluru on Tuesday night.
Karnataka rain live updates
According to scientists at the regional observatory of India Meteorological Department (IMD), Bengaluru witnessed about 114.6 mm of rainfall, out of which more than 100 mm of rainfall was received in less than 12 hours since Tuesday evening. A yellow alert (heavy rain) has been sounded for Bengaluru for Thursday.

Tuesday's rain wreaked havoc in Bengaluru with knee-deep water everywhere and vehicles partially-submerged in the rainwaters. Water overflowed from stormwater drains and gushed in all directions. This is what led to the death of the two workers inside a Cauvery water pipeline in Upkar Layout in Ullal area. The duo – Dev Bharath Kushwaha (36) and Ankit Kumar Sahni (23) from Bihar – was part of a 9-member team that was carrying out welding works for the Cauvery water pipelines in the layout when they got trapped in the rainwater that gushed inside.

Their bodies were removed on Wednesday morning after water was pumped out of the large pipes.
In Hassan, a man who had taken shelter from rain in an abandoned school died when the building wall collapsed on him, on Wednesday. It is suspected that the wall may have weakened due to incessant rain on Tuesday night. The Hassan district administration declared holiday on Wednesday for all schools till Class 10.

In parts of the IT capital, residents were forced to spend the night on their terrace as water flooded their houses, submerging vehicles parked in basements and on the ground floor. An initial estimation, according to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials, has revealed that Tuesday night's losses could be several crores, both to public infrastructure as well as citizen's houses and properties. "It will take at least a couple of days to assess the exact extent of damage as our immediate priority is to clear out the water and clean up localities," explained a senior engineer attached with the South zone of BBMP.
Sources revealed that more than 3,000 houses were flooded due to overflowing drains and BBMP central control room had logged close to 500 distress calls from various parts of the city.
CM Basavaraj Bommai, who visited the rain rain-affected areas in RR Nagar and Hoskerehalli, attributed the damage to heavy rainfall of more than 100 mm. "Whenever there is rainfall above 100 mm within a single day, floods are witnessed across the city. Also, wherever the terrain is problematic with low-lying areas, floods are bound to occur. We have identified bottleneck areas and we will clear all of them to ensure free flow of water. We will give Rs 25,000 to the flooded houses and Rs 5 lakh to the kin of migrant labourers who died at Ullal."
As per the data made available by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) six areas received ‘very heavy rainfall with more than 115 mm rainfall. IMD officials said Horavamu area, which was one of the severely flooded localities on Tuesday, received 155 mm rainfall. In Shivajinagar, a 12 ft wall collapsed over more than 20 two-wheelers parked along the wall.
In some areas, motorists were witnessed to their bikes being washed away by the flowing water. "Some of us had parked the bikes along the road and took shelter at a bus stop. But there were no signs of abating and in a few minutes as the water level increased on the road, the bikes were washed away for a distance. The force was such that nobody could get into the water and stop the vehicles," explained a Madhusoodhan AS, a techie who was stranded near Nayandahalli junction while returning from work. In fact, In a video that went viral, several stranded citizens had to ‘swim' out of the flooded Nayandahalli junction to reach a safer point.
Several residential localities like Koramangala, RR Nagar, Hoskerehalli, Hennur Main Road were flooded with drain water. Major underpasses too were inaccessible due to drain water gushing into pedestrian pathways. Even as several ministers, MLAs began visiting the flooded areas, residents reacted in a sharp tone, "This is the situation during the rainy season every year. For over a decade, the state government and officials had assured us to resolve the issue. But there is no improvement on the ground," lamented Srivatsa Kumar, a resident from Hoskerehalli.
On the outskirts, an overflowing lake in Hunasamaranahalli had submerged the National Highway-4 triggering a traffic jam up to Yeshwantpur.