Bengaluru: With an unprecedented record breaking 180 mm of rain in less than five hours the highest in 127 years Bengalureans woke up to a city devastated by the rains, that too on Independence Day, as Monday night’s torrential thunderstorm left a huge trail of destruction in its wake, with most of South–east Bengaluru under 5-10 feet of water through Tuesday.

Nearly all major roads were flooded, trees uprooted and electric poles snapped, cutting off power supply to this residential and office IT-BT hub. While this is the kind of monsoon mayhem that Bengalureans have come to expect, this time, the damage extended to major arterial roads and residential neighbourhoods in Koramangala, Adugodi, Ejipura, HSR layout as well as Wilson Garden, HSR Layout and Shanthi Nagar and many slums, where drains simply overflowed, flooding into over a hundred homes.

With people stranded, rubber boats were called in to ferry the marooned to safety while fire safety vehicles were seen in the basements of office blocks, pumping out water laced with kerosene that posed a huge fire safety hazard.

JPF

Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George faced the brunt of the people’s anger when he toured Adugodi and Koramangala on Tuesday accompanied by Mayor G. Padmavathi, where people were seen using buckets and mugs to drain the sewage water that had flooded into their homes, polluting their stored drinking water and destroying their TVs, laptops, phone and other possessions and living areas. With little effect.