A 60-year-old man whose apartment in New Town was without power waded through knee-deep water to keep his insulin canisters at a neighbour’s house that still had electricity.
A techie who lives in New Town had a prayer on his lips and an eye on his laptop's battery icon as his apartment went without power for more than 20 hours after the meter box on the ground floor got submerged.
A Lake Town neighbourhood did not know till late in the evening when power would return. Power had to be switched off on Monday night because water was too close to the meter boxes.
This was the situation for thousands of residents of swathes of areas along VIP Road, including Lake Town, Sreebhumi, Bangur, Kaikhali and Haldirams as well as those who stay in Salt Lake and New Town.
Salt Lake recorded around 260mm of rain from 8.30pm on Sunday to 8.30pm on Tuesday. Dum Dum recorded around 234mm in the same period.
In New Town, several places in all three action areas remained under water.
Water entered the ground floor as well as basement parking in lots of many apartment buildings.
The situation is similar in older neighbourhoods like Lake Town, Bangur, Haldirams, Kaikhali, Chinar Park and parts of Salt Lake.
Bagjola and Kestopur canals, the two channels that drain out water from New Town, are choked because of years of neglect, rampant dumping of garbage and encroachments. Huts have come up on their beds in some places.
The rainwater entered underground reservoirs of hundreds of houses and apartment blocks, triggering a scramble for drinking water.
Many residents were spotted standing with buckets and jars outside swank complexes in New Town and other areas, waiting to collect water from bowsers sent by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.
Retired government employee Dhurjyoti Gupta, whose flat was still without electricity, waded at least 1km in knee-deep water on Tuesday afternoon to keep canisters of insulin in the refrigerator in a friend's house, which still had power.
Soham Chakraborty, a resident of Karunamoyee Housing Complex, said: “I could not go to office as our parking area was waist-deep under water and no app cab or bike agreed to enter the complex.”
