Two killed as late evening rainfall in Karachi brings respite from sweltering heat

KARACHI: The people of the city had to endure another day of hardship following the late evening rain on Thursday. The rain also turned the weather pleasant giving a much-needed respite from the day-long hot and humid weather. Two people also died in rain related accidents.

The temperatures in Karachi soared 40C with 40pc humidity, making it extremely uncomfortable but the intermittent rain that started around 8pm and continued throughout till the early hours of Friday, brought some relief with the usual urban flooding that the city’s often encroached and blocked drains cause. The result was that motorists witnessed traffic jams on most of the major arteries of the city due to inundation by the rain and overflowing sewage. Traffic snarled at Awami Markaz, Karsaz, Nursery, Baloch Colony on Sharae Faisal and from Mahmoodabad to the airport due to rainwater. Besides Nishtar Road, Garden East, Lasbela, North Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, Surjani Town, parts of Landhi, Korangi and Malir witnessed

gridlocks. Cars and motorcycles broke down on many of these roads and people had to drag them across for long distances or abandoned them on roadsides. The lack of public transport multiplied miseries of the people and many of them were forced to take shelter under buildings and bridges.

Two people, including 50-year-old Agha Jaffar Amir, s/o Haji Kaftan, was swept away by strong currents of a drain that he was trying to cross in Orangi Town Number 4 near post office. His body was brought to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Similarly, one person who could not identified was electrocuted near Hussainabad.

Following the rain as many as K-Electric’s 582 feeders gave in, causing widescale outage in parts of PIB Colony, Tariq Road, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Liaquatabad, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Nazimabad and several other parts of the city.

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, the most amount of rain was recorded in Bahria Town 85mm, Gulshan-i-Hadeed with 68 millimetres, followed by 34.6mm in Nazimabad, 34mm at PAF Base Faisal, 33mm at PAF Base Masroor, 27mm in Surjani, 24.4mm in Airport Old Area, 16mm in Landhi, 15.8mm at Jinnah Terminal and 11.2mm in Saadi Town.

The Met office has forecast intermittent rain/wind-thundershower (with isolated heavy falls) on Friday, while warning of urban flooding likely. The temperature is likely to range between 37C-39C.