419 poles broken, 23 transformers damaged: Storm, rain wreak havoc in Bareilly
Suspense Crime, Digital Desk : With winds reaching speeds of up to 80 to 100 mph (100 km/h) in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district, the situation is dire. Power poles exceeding 400 have been broken, while the damage to transformers amounts to two dozen and has left thousands of trees fallen.
Rain and storm have wreaked havoc in UP with a scorching heat throughout. The high winds blowing at a speed of 100 have caused destruction. While 419 poles and 23 transformers have been damaged in Bareilly alone due to the storm, the city was entirely cut off from electricity for the moment and power lines to almost all villages were snapped. It's been over 24 hours since the Electricity Corporation officials and staff are trying to restore power but to no success. Impact on drinking water crisis, business, industry and people's lives can't be assessed yet.
252 electricity poles were damaged in urban areas while 167 were damaged in the rural part of the city. While 5 transformers in the city have been damaged, there are 18 damaged in the rural area. Various high-tension lines were cut as trees fell across the region causing complete blackout throughout the city as well as the villages, people could be seen spending a sleepless night without power till the next morning. Supply started being restored by 10 AM. Many places were still without electricity until the wee hours of the night, as inverters stopped working and people continued to lie awake in a sultry and warm environment. The drinking water crisis also intensified, as tube wells of the Municipal Corporation and the Jalkal Department were not operating due to a lack of power.
154 trees fell and affected the traffic
The storm rendered life in the city stagnant as some 154 trees and heavy branches of trees had fallen in several parts of the city leading to complete blockade on numerous roads of the city and the district administration worked to clear all the roads and rescue and relief operations continued throughout the next day till evening and evening. The entire municipal corporation workforce took to the streets over the night and the rescue and relief operations continued until Thursday evening.
Administrative staff engaged in the relief and rescue work
The Municipal Corporation came into action with an entire army including 150 officials of the Corporation and Municipal Workers, 8 bulldozers, 10 tractor-trolleys, 40 small cargo vehicles, 6 engineers all throughout the four zones of the city and their operations were not stopped during the night so as to rescue and rescue all fallen trees, debris and branches of the trees on the roads. The priority route as informed by the Municipal Corporation officers was where the traffic was totally blocked; there were vehicles stalled in various areas due to the trees.
The Electricity Corporation and Municipal Corporation acted jointly with the Commissioner, Add. Municipal Commissioner, Chief Engineer and Executive Engineer inspecting the entire city. All officials along with employees were found rushing to the most severely affected areas to ensure quick and swift rescue of trees along with electricity workers from the Electricity department. They had been found jointly inspecting various spots and removing trees from the electricity lines so as to restore the electricity supply, however power still did not resume in several areas after long hours of ordeal.
Disaster Management Exposed
Pre-monsoon storm exposed the poor state of disaster management within the city with old and deteriorated trees giving way in several locations, creating panic in the city with authorities busy and people asking to take stringent steps to prevent such incidents.locals also pointed fingers at Municipal authorities for not trimming old and decaying trees before the onset of rains. Municipal Corporation officers are in the process of creating a list of trees that may fall and then trimming them and cutting if necessary, so that during monsoons these problems may not arise.
According to Municipal Commissioner Sanjeev Kumar Maurya, "Teams were immediately dispatched across all zones as soon as the storm passed and focus was on re-opening of roads and restoring public amenities. Majority of the roads are open and further work is being done in some of the remaining localities."
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