‘Red’ alert in Gujarat’s Junagadh after heavy rain; Mumbai showers to continue

After witnessing incessant rainfall on Saturday, Mumbai is likely to get some respite from the heavy showers as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has downgraded the Maharashtra capital’s ‘orange’ alert to ‘yellow’ alert for Sunday.

Thane and Palghar were downgraded from a ‘red’ alert to an ‘orange’ alert, while Raigad district will remain under the ‘orange’ alert.

In Gujarat, heavy to very heavy rain pounded several districts in the state’s south and Saurashtra regions on Saturday, triggering a flood-like situation in urban areas and isolating villages amid rising water levels in dams and rivers surging to danger levels.

Top updates on Maharashtra and Gujarat rain:

1. The Thane district administration in Maharashtra sounded a flood alert for villages in Bhiwandi, Shahapur and Vasai talukas after the water levels in Tansa Dam reached close to the overflow levels on Saturday.

2. With Mumbai experiencing relentless heavy rainfall this week, the health department of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued an advisory for leptospirosis due to the rise in cases this season.

3. A 19-year-old man from Murbad in Thane was found dead on the bank of a river on Saturday. The victim, Deepak Kumar Paswan, came from Uttar Pradesh and was working in a media company. The police said on Tuesday, Paswan went out for work but didn’t return home.

4. The Raigad administration imposed prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in Irshalwadi, where 27 people have died in a landslide. The prohibitory orders will be effective from July 23 till August 6, it stated. The death toll in the landslide at Irshalwadi hamlet in Maharashtra’s Raigad district mounted to 27 on Saturday, the third day of the search and rescue operation, while 81 persons are yet to be traced, an NDRF official said.

5. In Gujarat, due to rain in Navsari district, there was a traffic jam of five-seven km on the national highway. Later, the traffic was opened towards Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Heavy traffic jam was also seen on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad national highway-48 in Navsari due to heavy rainfall in the area.

6. According to the IMD, light/moderate fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to continue over Saurashtra and Kutch on July 24, Gujarat region on July 23. A red alert has been issued for Junagadh, Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Kutch, Surat, Valsad, Navsari and Surat.

7. Gujarat’s Junagadh saw a flood-like situation due to torrential rain. In the city, dozens of parked cars and cattle were seen swept away in gushing waters after it received 241 mm of rainfall in just 12 hours till 8pm on Saturday. People were seen wading through waist-deep water to shift to safer places. Some of them were rescued by volunteers as they were carried away in strong currents.

8. A father-son duo drowned after their car got washed away near Silvassa town of Dadra and Nagar Haveli district in the Union Territory neighbouring Gujarat. The two were caught by fast-moving waters on Friday night when they were trying to cross over a low-lying bridge.

9. In Navsari city, a man and his son were swept away in a swollen drain. While the man was rescued, efforts were underway to trace the son, news agency PTI reported.

10. The MeT department also warned fishermen to not venture along and off the north Gujarat coast from July 22 to July 26 saying squally weather conditions were very likely to prevail during this period.