At least 22 persons were killed across the state and several localities in Patna witnessed power outages because of the thunderstorm and rain that hit different parts of Bihar on Sunday.
Lightning strikes caused six deaths - five in East Champaran and one in West Champaran district. Storm-related incidents like falling of wall or ceiling killed five others in West Champaran. As many as 11 persons were killed because of electrocution - four in Jamui, two each in Munger and Madhepura, and one each in Vaishali, Samastipur and Saharsa.
Confirming the deaths, a senior official at the disaster management department said: "We are collecting details from districts and based on the reports compensation would be provided to the victims."
Kin of a victim of natural calamities get Rs 4 lakh.
"The department has also sought details of the damages caused due to storm so that compensations could be paid accordingly," the official added.
A cyclonic circulation prevailing in the upper air (1.5 km above the surface) over Bihar caused Sunday's storm. Also, a low pressure area has developed over the Bay of Bengal, leading to moisture incursion in Bihar causing rainfall.
"Several parts of Bihar are expected to receive rainfall and witness thunderstorms till May 30," said S.K. Patel, meteorologist at the Patna Met office.
Even Patna witnessed 10.5 mm rainfall on Sunday over more than 30 minutes in the afternoon. The state capital has so far received 49.4 mm of pre-monsoon rainfall (from March 1 to May 31), a notch below the normal (51. 0 mm).
The state till May 28 had received 106.7 mm of rainfall, almost 50 per cent more than the normal pre-monsoon rainfall. Other places which recorded rainfall on Sunday were West Champaran, East Champaran, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi and Madhepura among others.
Gusty winds, blowing at a speed of around 50 km per hour, accompanied the rainfall, which led to the outages in Patna. A senior official at the Patna electric supply undertaking said that no major damage was done to the distribution line and power supply was restored in less than an hour.
"Objects flying with the strong wind sometimes get entangled in the distribution line," the official explained. "Same thing happens when trees standing near the distribution line get entangled with wires. This leads to automatic tripping of power supply. We restored the supply once the wind speed became less."
The Patna Met office said the depression over east-central Bay of Bengal is likely become a deep depression in the next 12 hours and then into a cyclonic circulation in 24 hours. The conditions, the Met office said, were favourable for further advancement of the southwest monsoon into parts of southeast Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the next 24 hours.
The met office has forecast timely arrival of monsoon in Bihar. The usual monsoon arrival date for Bihar is June 10.
