Bhubaneswar, July 10: A heavy downpour that had persisted for more than two hours this evening drowned the civic body's monsoon promises that streets and homes would not be inundated by rainwater.

Residents of Acharya Vihar, Nayapalli, Jayadev Vihar and GGP Colony bore the brunt of the sudden showers and witnessed major waterlogging with rainwater entering their houses, in some cases reaching up to the window level, forcing them to run out of their own houses.

"This is not a common occurrence in our area during the monsoon. We haven't faced any waterlogging such as this for many years. We were lauding the administration for their efforts to avoid waterlogging in our area, but today's rain and the chaos that has followed have washed away our admiration," said Acharya Vihar resident Sampad Mohanty.

Mohanty had to run out of his house with his friends in view of the rising water level in his house. "The water reached a height of about 5 feet in our house. It could have been fatal. It is better to get drenched than to drown or get electrocuted as the chances of short circuit is higher in such a scenario," said Uttam Sahu, his friend who has been living in a rented house at Acharya Vihar for the past five years.

A number of people were seen stranded at various places, while waterlogging made things worse for those living in or commuting through the low-lying areas.

Most of the internal and main city arteries remained inundated with rainwater. "The shower started and went on without stopping. I was to go to railway station to board my train home, but I couldn't even find an autorickshaw because of the rain," said Amulya Nayak, a corporate employee stranded on Janpath at Kharavela Nagar.

The thundershowers, which started around 5.30pm, went on for about two hours continuously followed by drizzling after 8pm. The local meteorological centre, although unable to assess the amount of rain till late in the evening, said it might reach up to about 80 to 90mm.

Weather experts said the thundershowers might have been triggered because of the heat and humidity during the morning. "The heat in the morning created evaporation, which resulted in rain in the evening. The humidity was at a high of 94 per cent early in the morning and about 80 per cent in the evening," said Met director Sarat Chandra Sahu.

The morning temperature in the city increased to 34.4 degrees Celsius today compared to yesterday's 29.5 degrees Celsius. Similarly, the minimum temperature also went up to 26.6 degrees Celsius compared to yesterday's 24.6 degrees Celsius. The weatherman said the minimum temperature would decrease because of the shower by this evening.