Bengaluru braces for more rain misery

Bengaluru: With the weather department predicting rains over the next two days, residents brace for more misery even as the city is grappling with the mess from last week's downpour. "There will be one or two spells of rain accompanied by thundershowers over the next two days in Bengaluru," an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official told IANS. Even with the respite from the rain on Sunday, several lakes and stormwater drains were overflowing due to the heavy rainfall on Saturday night, leading to traffic snarls in several parts of the city. During the first week of September, Bengaluru had recorded rainfall measuring upto 209.66 mm which is close to the monthly average. Even as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike had set up 21 teams to clear fallen trees and electric poles, several of the denizens took to social media to report instances of overflowing drains, inundated areas in their localities to the authorities. The rainfall received in the state has been showing disparities as several areas around Bengaluru have been flooding owing to rains, while the interior parts of the state have been facing a deficit of rain. The reservoirs in the state to supply water to interior parts of Karnataka still face a shortage of water levels. Four persons were killed on Friday night as heavy rainfall wreaked havoc in the city. Three persons were killed as a huge tree fell on their car amid the downpour while another teenager was found dead at an overflowing water drain in the city. On Sunday, a portion of the Infosys campus wall in the Electronic City area had collapsed due to the heavy rains on Saturday night.