One dies as storm strikes Siliguri
Posted by barunroy on April 14, 2008
Siliguri, April 13: One person died after a storm with winds at 70kmph swept through Siliguri and its surrounding areas last night. The whole subdivision, including the town, plunged into darkness as electric poles were brought down and power lines snapped. Authorities said there were no reports of large-scale damage to properties.
Rekha Jaiswal (45) was killed after a tree uprooted by the gusts of wind fell on her tin-roofed house in Suryasen Colony. The woman was taken to the Siliguri subdivisional hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries later. [Inset: A house damaged in the storm in Mallaguri.]
“Over 65 per cent of overhead wires in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation area were damaged,” said Lyton Bhowmick, the divisional manager of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL). “Our men were pressed into action last night itself after the storm subsided and power supply was be restored to the whole town by this morning.”
The damage was worse in rural areas. Tapan Halder, the suburban divisional manager of the WBSEDCL, said 17 electric poles, two of them for 33KV transmission, were either bent or uprooted. Electric cables were damaged in many places after trees fell on them. The official added that they resumed power supply to some areas. Elsewhere, electricity will be back by tomorrow.
Subir Sarkar, the in-charge of the North Bengal University’s weather station, said the sudden wind and rain were caused by Nor’westers or kalboisakhi and yesterday’s was the most intense in the past three years.
Met officials have forecast scattered to fairly widespread rain/thundershower in sub-Himalayan Bengal and Sikkim over the next 48 hours under the influence of a north-south trough extending from eastern Bihar to northwest Bay of Bengal. [The Telegraph]
