Heavy rains lashed several parts of Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow, on Thursday, 16 September. The Indian Express reported that 13 people were killed in various districts of the state.
The Met office has predicted more rain on Friday and heavy rainfall in the coming days.
“Heavy rainfall has been recorded across the state, mainly in the central UP districts such as Ayodhya, Barabanki and Lucknow. About 33mm rainfall has been recorded over the last 24 hours. A few incidents of lightning and thunderstorm, as well as house collapses, have been reported. As per initial reports, 13 deaths have been reported, while close to a dozen more have been injured in rain-related incidents,” UP Relief Commissioner Ranvir Prasad was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
A Red alert for very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall, accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning, was issued for Hardoi, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Shahjahanpur and other adjoining areas. Orange and Yellow alerts have also been issued for several districts in the state.
An advisory was issued on Thursday by the Ghaziabad district magistrate in the wake of the Met forecast, reported Hindustan Times. “People should avoid moving through waterlogged areas, avoid going near electricity poles, an avoid moving to areas with high volume of traffic,” the advisory stated.
On Thursday, IANS reported that around 30 districts had witnessed incessant rainfall since Wednesday.
News agency PTI reported several deaths due to house and wall collapses in Fatehpur, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Jaunpur and Barabanki districts of UP due to heavy rains.
Three people were killed in Jaunpur after a wall collapsed because of the incessant rains, and two more were killed in a similar incident in Barabanki's Ramsanehi Ghat.
Lucknow, Kanpur, Barabanki, Sultanpur, Sitapur, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Sambhal, Bijnor and Amroha, among others, had witnessed heavy rainfall.
Heavy Flooding, Power Outage, Schools Shut
Low-lying areas in Lucknow, including the main road leading to Vidan Sabha, were waterlogged leaving many underpasses in the city submerged.
IANS reported that power outages and traffic jams were reported in parts of Lucknow because of the floods.
The state government had announced that schools and colleges will remain shut on 17 and 18 September in the wake of the heavy rainfall.
On Thursday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecasted widespread rainfall in Uttar Pradesh and issued red alerts to the eastern part of the state.
IMD also predicted thunderstorms with light to moderate intensity rain in various parts of west Uttar Pradesh for the next 24 hours, IANS reported.
The Met department report stated that Lucknow recorded 115 mm of rain between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning.
(With inputs from The Indian Express, PTI, Hindustan Times, IANS and News18.)
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