Rain-induced floods in Gujarat forced the state administration to evacuate approximately 13,000 people on Sunday. Among the rescued, 5,965 people were from Vadodara, 5,392 from Navsari, 240 from Bharuch, 170 from Surat, and 100 from Tapi, additional chief secretary Pankaj Kumar told the media on Sunday.
The village of Umerpada in Surat district received 416 mm of rainfall on Sunday - the highest in Gujarat. Overall, the entire state recorded 31.8 mm of rain in the past 24 hours, a ‘large excess’ of 283%.
In a tragic incident, three girls aged seven, five and two lost their lives in Nadeda village on Sunday morning, after heavy rains caused a wall of an adjoining house to collapse on their kuchcha hut while the family had breakfast. The children were survived by their two farm-labourer parents, who received major injuries in the accident.
The Indian Air Force also helped rescue 45 individuals from the Navsari and Narmada district by airlifting them in two choppers. A majority of these people were trapped in a flooded prawn farm.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) also rescued 140 people that were trapped in their tenements in Kuwarda village, on the banks of the overflowing Kim river.
Waterlogging at Bharuch and Surat forced the Indian Railways to cancel 26 trains and divert 15 others on Sunday.
More rain forecast this week
Gujarat had received merely 2.15 mm of rainfall from August 1-4 back in 2018. But this year, there has been a humongous rise up to 137.77 mm during the same period.
Since the onset of monsoon, the entire state has received 370.2 mm of rainfall up until August 4, a -9% departure from normal.
Meanwhile, extremely heavy rainfall is expected to continue in parts of Gujarat on Monday, at the back of a furious downpour on Sunday.
The IMD has predicted ‘extremely heavy’ isolated falls in Narmada, Chhota Udepur, Valsad, Surat, Bharuch and Daman, Dadra Nagar Haveli districts.
Moreover, heavy to very heavy rains are very likely at isolated places in the districts of Baroda, Anand, Panchmahal, Navsari, Dangs, Dahod, Tapi, Bhavnagar, Botad, Amreli, Gir Somnath and Diu.
Heavy rains are also expected at isolated places in Gandhinagar, Aravalli, Sabarkantha and Mahisagar.
