KARACHI: As many as nine people, including two children, lost their lives in different incidents of electrocution while one child drowned in the rainwater on Friday as the heavy rain turned large parts of the city into giant cesspools and septic tanks, police and rescue services’ officials said.
The heavy rains, which started on Thursday evening, continued with intervals on Friday amidst some heavy falls “totaled a mammoth 140-150mm” under the influence of two powerful monsoon systems confirmed the met office. It flooded the roads resulting in traffic jams and turned low-lying areas into stinking swamps. Like always, the unduly long power breakdowns continued to be reported from across the city as well.
The intermittent rain and some heavy showers on Friday flooded large sections of the University Road, Sharae Faisal, including the notorious Natha Khan, MA Jinnah Road and Shahrah-e-Pakistan besides several other roads, where hundreds of vehicles were stuck with vexed and irritated commuters inside. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Friday said approximately a staggering 140 millimeters of rain was recorded in the city since Thursday evening when the powerful monsoon system brought cascading heavy showers across the port city. “Some parts of the city received around 140-150mm of rain under the influence of this monsoon system since Thursday evening. While some areas were battered with 100mm rain since Friday morning,” Director Met Karachi, Qayyum Bhutto, said while talking to The News.
Bhutto said Karachi would continue to receive intermittent showers of varying intensity including heavy falls till late Saturday, after which the rain causing system would begin to weaken and subside. The rain system would eventually move away from Karachi by Sunday morning and despite the city remaining overcast would not see any major rainfall, Bhutto sounded the forecast.
The areas adjoining the PAF Masroor and Faisal bases received the heaviest rains on Thursday and Friday. Till Friday night, the Masroor Base had recorded 68.5 mm of rain, followed by Gulshan-e-Hadeed 60mm, Keamari and Saddar 50mm, 47mm, Faisal Base 47mm, Nazimabad (Paposh) 44.6mm, Old Airport Area, 40.8mm, Gulistan e Jauhar 35.5mm, Landhi 37.5mm, Surjani received 35mm, Jinnah Terminal 29mm and North Karachi 24mm of rain.
The heavy rainfall also proved to be a bounty for the city when the water in the Hub Dam’s reservoir increased by six feet, prompting the dam’s administration to claim receiving at least one-year’s additional water in the catchment area of the reservoir.
But tragedy also struck several families. As many as seven people, including two children, died in rain-related incidents, police and rescue services’ officials said. Of these, six were electrocuted on Friday in different areas of the city while a child drowned in a storm water drain. Snapping wires in Liaquatabad near Sindhi Hotel electrocuted two donkeys, while the cart owner luckily survived.
But the punishing power outages since Thursday mid-day added to the woes of Karachiites. Several areas of the city were subjected to prolonged power breakdowns on Friday and the situation had not eased in many areas till the filing of this report. Prolonged power breakdowns were reported from North Karachi, New Karachi, Surjani and adjoining areas, several blocks of Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Federal B Area, Liaquatabad, Nazimabad and North Nazimabad and vast areas of Malir, Korangi and Landhi Garden and Soldier Bazaar.
Power utility service conceded to the situation, saying due to technical faults, some areas witnessed power failures while in some areas, electricity was disconnected as precautionary measure, adding that efforts were underway to restore power in the city areas.
