Rain lashes Darjeeling and Siliguri – Power of storm: uprooted trees, snapped electric lines
Posted by barunroy on May 20, 2008
Darjeeling/Siliguri, May 19: Storms with high velocity winds struck Darjeeling and Siliguri almost simultaneously this morning, uprooting trees that cut off power supply in the hill station and damaged houses and blocked roads in the plains.
The thunderstorm struck Darjeeling around 11am, while the Siliguri region faced the onslaught 45 minutes later. [Inset: An uprooted tree blocks NH31 at Salugara near Siliguri on Monday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo]
Although separated by a height of approximately 6,000ft, the characteristics of the thunderstorms and their origins were almost the same, weather experts at North Bengal University (NBU) said. “The occurrence of Nor’westers in Darjeeling is uncommon but it happens sometimes,” Subir Sarkar, in-charge of NBU’s weather station, said.
Overcast skies and strong winds, resulting in swirling dust storms, were followed by heavy rain in both the places. The rain lasted till about 1.30pm.
“About five to six trees were uprooted in Darjeeling town,” a resident said. Two of them fell in the Chowrastha and Mall areas, snapping electricity wires and cutting off power supply.
Power came back in phases from 5pm and supply was completely restored by 8pm.
Buddha Jayanti prayers had just ended when a huge branch snapped from a tree and fell on the Chowrastha area where the celebrations were being held.
The prasad distribution was, however, affected.
Several layers of massive cumulonimbus clouds hung over Siliguri town before the winds and the rain struck. The wind speed was about 55kmph, compared to the 30kmph yesterday, Sarkar said. They blew for half an hour from 11.45am,uprooting trees and snapping overhead electricity supply lines. A hutment was also destroyed when a tree fell on it at Majumdar Colony. Nobody was hurt in the incident.
“The maximum temperature was 29.6 degrees Celsius and minimum was 19.6 degrees Celsius in the past 24 hours,” Sarkar said. “It rained 23.5mm in Siliguri and the surrounding areas.”
The thunder squall was caused by the same north-south trough over the Bay of Bengal that caused yesterday’s hailstorm.
In Salugara, traffic was disrupted for more than two hours because of an uprooted tree lying across the road. In Garidhura, about 15 trees were uprooted.
“We have asked the public works department to remove the trees,” Dibyendu Das, the subdivisional officer in-charge of Siliguri, said. “The army is clearing the trees from the roads it maintains,” he added.
Lyton Bhowmick, divisional engineer, Siliguri town, West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, said restoration of power supply was done on a war footing. The supply was restored completely by 7pm. [The Telegraph]
