India: Tens of thousands marooned as 87 killed in monsoon

At least 87 people were killed in two days of crippling rains in India and another 130 were feared buried in landslides, according to authorities and news reports.

The strongest rain ever recorded in the country shut down the financial hub Mumbai, snapped communication lines, closed airports and marooned tens of thousands of people.

Troops were deployed after the sudden rains – measuring up to 94.4 centimetres in one day in suburban Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra state.

“Most places in India don’t receive this kind of rainfall in a year. This is the highest ever recorded in India’s history,” RV Sharma, director of the meteorological department in Mumbai, said.

India’s previous heaviest rainfall, recorded at Cherrapunji in the north-eastern Meghalaya state – one of the rainiest places on Earth – was 83.82 centimetres on July 12, 1910, Sharma said.

India’s Home Minister Shiraj Patil, meanwhile, told Parliament today that 633 people had died in monsoon-related incidents over the past two months.

Patil said about 5.6 million people in 16,000 villages had been hit by the heavy seasonal rains that had washed away tens of thousands of homes, along with roads, railway tracks and bridges. More than 76,000 farm animals have perished and more than 1.72 million acres of crops had been destroyed by the swirling flood waters, Patil said.

At least 78 people died in Maharashtra in weather-related incidents amid two days of heavy downpours.

At least 25 people drowned after being trapped in cars or crushed by falling walls, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, the state’s top elected official, said today. It was unclear whether those 25 were included in the total for the entire state. Early today, he ordered a two-day holiday and called the army, navy and home guards to help with relief.

The state-run All India Radio reported about 150,000 people were stranded in railway stations across Mumbai. Later some train services in suburban and central Mumbai resumed after the rain eased and floodwaters subsided.

Roads were choked all night as tens of thousands of people were stranded, and the two main roads were flooded.

“We were stuck in a bus all through the night with nothing to eat or drink. It was impossible to get out because there was water all around,” said government employee Yamini Patil.

The domestic and international airports in Mumbai, among the busiest in the country, have been shut down since yesterday evening, and all incoming flights were being diverted to New Delhi and other airports.

“Never before in Bombay’s history has this happened,” said Bombay’s Police Commissioner AN Roy. “Our first priority is to rescue people stranded in floods.”

Hundreds of children spent the night in suburban schools. Jayant Shah walked through the night from his office to reach his daughter.

“It was safer that my daughter was in school because I was stuck in my office. I’m trying to reach her school now after walking and hopping in and out of buses,” Shah said.

State police reported new landslides in Maharashtra’s Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, and Kolhapur areas. Details weren’t immediately available.

Rescuers started arriving last night in Kondivali village, 95 miles south of Bombay, hoping to extricate nearly 100 people trapped there, said police officer S Jadav. At least 30 more people were feared buried in another mudslide in the nearby village of Jui.

“We have no information from them, all lines are dead,” said another officer P Ranade.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported at least 34 people were killed in landslides in Kondivali, and another 20 elsewhere in Maharashtra.

PTI quoted Kerala state administrator Sunil Jadhav as saying eight people were killed in landslides there.

India’s monsoon rains, which usually last from June through September, claim hundreds of lives every year.