Thursday, July 28, 2005
Three Feet Of Rain In A Day
The official figure is 37.1 inches of rainfall in Bombay in one day. The current count is over 450 dead around the area:
Rescuers searched for survivors buried under debris Thursday and rushed aid to villages cut off by record-breaking rains that paralyzed Bombay and its surrounding state, leaving more than 450 dead.The residents of Bombay are trying to help each other:
At least 267 people died in Bombay, India's financial hub after being crushed by falling walls, trapped in cars or electrocuted when the heaviest rains on record swept through the city late Tuesday. Phone networks collapsed, highways were blocked and the city's airports, among the nation's busiest, were closed.
Bombay's residents responded by opening up their homes and distributing food to motorists stuck in traffic and people wading through water.I can't even imagine 3 feet of rain in a day. I have seen 8 inches personally. Americus, GA got 21 inches in a day in 1994 from Hurricane Alberto. There was a massive flood in 1994 in Georgia.
"They were just angels. Women and children were giving food, biscuits to people on the road and even assuring us that it was homecooked," said G. Sawant, a manager at a private infrastructure company.
Residents tied ropes across flooded roads to help people wade through waist-deep water as workers repaired communication networks and towed away abandoned cars and buses to clear the city's gridlocked highways. Train services had resumed and flights were to begin later in the day.