Weather Update Today LIVE: Mumbai, Suburbs Get Over 100mm Rainfall, Red Alert In Several Areas; Severe Water logging in Gujarat's Rajkot

Water entered residential areas and shops in the low-lying areas of Gujarat’s Vapi. An orange alert was issued for the Valsad district today.

elhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Tuesday inspected Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial complex at Rajghat that was inundated due to a flood-like situation caused by the rising level of the Yamuna river and hoped that the water accumulated there would be completely pumped out in the next 24 hours.

In a tweet in the evening, the LG said work is underway on a mission mode to drain out the flood water from Rajghat.

“Draining of flood water from inundated Raj Ghat continues in mission mode after the operations were put in motion on Sunday. The flooding is severe and all hands are to deck to restore this national place of pride for India. Took stock of the works on ground this evening,” he said.

Delhi’s Forest and Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Tuesday that the Forest Department has been instructed to set up a rapid response team to address the concerns regarding snakes emerging from homes along the banks of Yamuna once the floodwaters recede.

The move came after snakes were spotted near the flood relief camps after which the Forest Department issued a helpline number — 1800118600 — for public assistance.

The swollen Yamuna river has reached the walls of the Taj Mahal here, a development only witnessed in 1978 and 2010, even as the Archaeological Survey of India said the increased water levels pose no threat to the iconic monument. According to officials, the water level crossed the ‘medium flood level’ of 499 feet. It reached 499.97 feet here on Tuesday due to which the water touched the walls of the Taj Mahal and submerged a garden behind it.

An official of the ASI’s Agra Circle said the main mausoleum is designed on a raised structure which stands on ‘Chameli farsh’ and is built on a foundation of 42 wells supported by a structure of sal woods.

“The Yamuna waters touched the walls of the Taj Mahal in 2010 and prior to that in the year 1978. In the 1978 flood, water had entered rooms in the monument’s  basement,” Prince Vajpayee, conservation assistant at Taj Mahal, told PTI.

Water level of River Yamuna comes below the danger mark. At 6 am, the water level was recorded to be at 205.25 meters in Delhi.

Gujarat | Severe waterlogging was seen in Dhoraji city of Rajkot district due to incessant rainfall on Tuesday. Around 300 mm of rainfall has been recorded in the last few hours. 70 people have been shifted to safer places.

In northwest India, there will be fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy rainfall expected in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Muzaffarabad till July 21, IMD said.

“Himachal Pradesh will experience rainfall on July 20 and 21, while west Rajasthan will see rainfall till July 19. Similarly, east Rajasthan will experience rainfall till July 21” said the IMD.

Three people were killed when their car fell into a stream after a portion of a road caved in the Nankneri area here in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday, police said.

In Kangra, 55 people, who were trapped in the Gandhara and Myani areas following an increase in the water level of the Beas, were rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), officials said.

On the accident, police said a stretch of the Neerath-Nankheri-Pandadhar link road caved in leading to the car falling into the stream. READ MORE

One more death due to heavy rains was reported in Haryana on Tuesday, taking the toll to 35, according to state government data. The state was lashed by heavy rains recently, leading to flooding in several districts.

As many as 1,362 villages and 1.73 lakh hectares of crop area have been affected, the data updated at 5 pm stated. A total of 6,629 people have been evacuated from the affected areas, it stated. READ MORE

The Haridwar District Magistrate has issued a high alert in the city as the water level in Ganga rose above the warning level of 293 metre after a sluice gate of the Bhimgoda barrage near Hari Ki Pauri was damaged, prompting authorities to alert people downstream to be vigilant on the ghats.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has already issued red and orange alerts in Uttarakhand due to the rising water level of Ganga in Haridwar and incessant rainfall lashing several parts of the state.

According to the information received by news agency IANS on the telephone from the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC), gate number 1 of the Bhimgoda barrage has been damaged due to which there is a strong possibility of increasing discharge of water downstream.

Delhi’s Rajghat area was waterlogged on Wednesday morning, although the water level of River Yamuna was recorded to be at 205.25 meters (below danger mark) at 6 am.

People in the Laksar and Khanpur regions of Uttarakhand’s Haridwar district are faced with a new scare – crocodiles have started making their way into residential areas flooded by the swollen Ganga and its tributaries.

The forest department has been catching the reptiles that are coming with the floodwaters of the Ganges and its tributaries, the Ban Ganga and the Sonali rivers, and releasing them back into the rivers.

An official of the department said that so far, around a dozen crocodiles have been captured from the populated areas along the main rivers. Additionally, the department has deployed a team of 25 employees in the Laksar and Khanpur regions to catch crocodiles, and they are available round the clock.

Widespread rains continued to lash Telangana since Monday night even as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for some districts for next 24 hours.

The IMD issued an impact-based heavy rainfall warning for some districts of Telangana for the 24-hour period ending Wednesday morning.

It has forecast heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy rain at isolated places in Khammam, Mahabubabad, Warangal, Hanamkonda, and Janagaon districts.

In its latest forecast, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Delhi-NCR was bracing for more rain as parts of the national capital received moderate downpours on Tuesday.

The IMD also said that a spell of heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to continue over the Konkan region, Goa and Maharashtra during next five days and over Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha, Telangana and Odisha in the next three days.

The weatherman also said that northwest India is expected to experience light to moderate rainfall, with fairly widespread to widespread coverage and isolated instances of heavy rainfall.

Four people were killed in rain-related incidents in the 24 hours ended at 6 pm on Tuesday, the Uttar Pradesh Relief Commissioner said in a statement.

One person died of snakebite in Kanpur Dehat, one due to man-animal conflict in Bijnor and two people drowned — one each in Varanasi and Shravasti. According to the Irrigation Department, the Ganga is flowing above the danger mark in Budaun and the Yamuna in Mathura.

In Uttar Pradesh, 39,216 people in 426 villages in 12 districts — Aligarh, Bijnor, GB Nagar, Farukhabad, Firozabad, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Shahjahanpur and Shamli — have been affected by floods.

Large parts of Gujarat, including Rajkot, Surat and Gir Somnath districts, received heavy to very heavy rainfall on Tuesday, creating a flood-like situation at several places and throwing normal life out of gear.

Sutrapada taluka in Gir Somnath district received 345 mm rainfall, the highest in the state, in just 14 hours since 6 am on Tuesday, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall in isolated areas in the state, especially in some districts of Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions, during the next few days.

Mumbai and its suburbs received moderate to heavy rainfall during the day and the weather department has issued an orange alert for the city for Wednesday predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall at some places, officials said.

The weather bureau has issued a red alert for neighbouring Raigad and Palghar districts predicting heavy to very rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rain at isolated places for Wednesday. An orange alert is sounded for Thane district.

As per the IMD (India Meteorological Department) classification, an orange alert is for a rainfall range between 115.6 mm to 204.4 mm in a day, while a red alert is issued when rainfall above 204.5 mm is expected for a 24-hour duration. READ MORE

Normal life was disrupted at several places in Telangana on Tuesday following widespread rains and the Met office has forecast heavy and very heavy rainfall at isolated places in Khammam, Warangal and other districts in the next few days.

The Southwest Monsoon has been active over Telangana and heavy rainfall occurred at most places in Mulugu and at few places in Hanumakonda and Karimnagar districts, the Met Centre of IMD said in a release.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Mayor Vijaya Lakshmi R Gadwal directed officials to be alert and take steps on a war footing to prevent any accidents in view of the rains in the city. She asked the Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EVDM) personnel to promptly drain out rainwater on roads.