Bengaluru woke up to flooded homes, roads and submerged parked vehicles, after a night-long heavy rainfall that was recorded the highest in 127 years.
The torrential rain uprooted trees, twisted electric poles and snapped cable lines disrupting power supply in many areas of the city. The worst affected area included upscale residential apartments in Koramangala, where people were forced to walk through the streets in waist-deep rainwater.
According to the Karnataka State Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSDMC), the highest-ever rainfall recorded in the city in a day was on August 27, 1890. Bengaluru had then received 162.1mm of rain, the record, which was broken on Tuesday.
"The downpour in just three hours (3 am to 6 am) was so heavy that storm-water drains could not take the load, resulting in water overflowing on to several roads and inundating low-lying areas," said Manjunatha Prasad, Commissioner, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palika (BBMP).
The Bellandur Lake, the largest of the 262 lakes and tanks in the city, was seen covered in toxic foam after the heavy downpour.
"We had forecast a moderate rainfall but it developed into much heavier than we could predict. It is certainly 3-4 times heavier than the prediction." said CN Prabhu, Scientist of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre.
He added, the weather monitoring system could not predict the heaviest rainfall in the city in 127 years.
For more videos, click here.
