Bengaluru rains: Schools declare holidays, hungry citizens await food packets
Rains continue in some parts of Bengaluru on Thursday, with more expected to come and several schools across the state have declared holidays for students.
Several schools across Karnataka have declared holidays with the state lashed by heavy rains this week; capital Bengaluru is on 'yellow alert' for Thursday. The city reeled under heavy downpours on Tuesday and Wednesday, when more than 3,000 houses flooded and properties worth lakhs of rupees was damaged.
Districts like Dakshina Kannada, Shivamogga, Mandya and Mysuru have also announced holidays for their schools and sent those who attended back home. Holidays have reportedly also been declared in anganavadis, primary schools, higher primary schools and even high schools.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Bengaluru has received 114.6 mm of rainfall - more than 100 mm in less than 12 hours - since Tuesday evening. More is expected today, the weather department warned.
The Meteorological Centre in Bengaluru said the minimum temperature could go drop to 21.5 degrees Celsius on Thursday with 93 per cent humidity.
Heavy showers are also expected in some regions of north Bengaluru, like the Kempegowda International airport.
For the next 24 to 48 hours, Bengaluru is expected to have a generally cloudy sky with a few isolated spells of rain and thundershowers, heavy at times.
Twitter has been flooded too - with pictures and videos of waterlogged roads and houses. One user shared a photograph of a house flooded with knee-deep waters and wrote: "Heavy rainfall has wreaked havoc in Bengaluru, uprooting trees and flooding houses and more rainfall is expected in the next 24 hours."
The city's Horamavu area - which falls under the Mahadevapura zone - received the highest rainfall in Bengaluru - 155 mm.
Officials from the city's civic body - the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike - have begun clearing roads of fallen trees and pumping water out from homes.
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had said special arrangements will be made to serve food and other essential items to the flood-affected people, but several people were reportedly without without food till Wednesday.
Below is a weather forecast for Bengaluru for the rest of the week.