Calcutta, Sept.26 :    Calcutta, Sept.26:  The first thought that struck Shyamali Pal, as she stared down the balcony of her house on Rashbehari Avenue on Tuesday morning was: Is it going to be worse than 1978? A housewife who has been living here for the past 30 years, the sheet of water that covered Rashbehari Avenue, on the Keoratala side, reminded her of the trauma that she and her family had to endure during the deluge 28 years ago. She knew that the waters of the swollen Hooghly would enter the city, but she had never expected it would reach her home. She rushed to her husband, Girish, whose only words of comfort were: 'We have lived through worse'. Fifteen km away, Suresh Jha, a porter, watched through the night with a cluster of slum-dwellers in Chitpur the water level rise in the Bagjola canal, to buffet against the 40-ft-high sandbag barrage. Finally, as wave after wave hit the sandbags, the wall gave way early on Tuesday and the raging water rushed in, submerging the homes of Jha and other residents. 'Where will we go now, and there are almost 3,000 of us here?' cried Jha, as irrigation department officials present on the spot shook their heads in helplessness. From the shanty towns in Chitpur along the Bagjola canal, to the households of Gokhale Road, Chetla and Rabindra Sarani, water from the swollen Hooghly has been engulfing large parts of the city from late on Monday night. And, weathermen have said that this is just the beginning. Even the Gods have not been spared. The tidal surge has rushed into the area around the Kali temple at Kalighat and is now threatening to invade the temple itself. Santosh Mullick, a temple sebait, pointed at the rising tide in Tolly's Nullah which is licking the last step of the ghat. 'Not even during the 1978 floods did the water reach this level,' he said. Tapan Bose, a resident of Sadananda Road, stood in front of his house as the waters rose around the temple area. 'I have not seen such intense tides in the past 40 years that I have lived here,' Bose said. Kalighat Road, which leads to Mamata Banerjee's residence, was also waterlogged. The scene was the same all along Tolly's Nullah., stretching from Kalighat to Bansdroni, Naktala and Garia. , where people have been forced to look for a dry patch of land for shelter. 'My daughter went to school in the morning when the water was not so high. Now she will have to wade back,' said Alpana Sen. Even before the water started receding, the first signs of a diarrhoea epidemic are evident in the modest dwellings in the Kalighat bylanes. Rita Sardar, a mother of two, said that the taps had all gone underwater. 'The children are drinking the water and falling ill,' she lamented. The numerous shops along the Kali Temple Road were shut as shopkeepers struggled to keep their wares dry. 'See the water inside the shop, it is more than knee-deep and rising,' said Swapan Saha, owner of a cloth shop. The scene was the same all along Tolly's Nullah, stretching from Kalighat to Bansdroni, Naktala and Garia, where people have been forced to look for a dry patch of land for shelter. In the north, businessman Hirak Saha of Rabindra Sarani was fearful of the rushing Hooghly. 'When the water came in today, it crossed our doorstep,' Saha said, pointing to his two-storeyed house. Saha also feared for the safety of his STD booth and snack stall, if the water rose any further. An irrigation department engineer said that the situation was uncertain for the next four days. 'It is a matter of concern if the Hooghly keeps rising. It is now flowing five metres above the level of water in the canal,' the engineer said. With the sluice gate under extreme stress due to the high water, more flooding of the Bagjola canal could create problems for areas like Lake Town and Salt Lake. A police officer on duty near the canal said they were keeping a strict vigil. 'We are constantly alerting people over loudspeakers and watching out for people venturing too close to the water's edge,' the policeman said. An engineer of the Calcutta canal division, Manas Chakraborty, monitoring the flow of water, said it would be futile to try and set up another sandbag barrage. 'The current is too strong and it would be a complete waste of time and effort to set up a barrier once again,' he said. 'It is certain to be washed away.' A contingent of engineers from the irrigation department have been rushed to the sluice gates across the city to prevent leaks from its sides. But the engineers are not too hopeful of checking this. 'Lack of maintenance has made it impossible for us to stem the flow of water into the city,' admitted an engineer.