Depression passes by - Met office says worst over but rain to continue

A child walks in the rain in Calcutta. (Pradip Sanyal)

Calcutta, Sept. 5: The Met department today assured Calcutta that a deep depression near the coast would dissipate but heavy rain continued late at night causing waterlogging in several areas.

Officials in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation said their staff were already working the pumps to clear waterlogged areas.

Water accumulation was reported from at least nine places. “These areas are Gobinda Khatick Road, Christopher Road (both near Beleghata), parts of NSC Bose Road, Southern Avenue, Swinhoe Street and a portion near Rabindra Sadan. The drainage department has alerted officials who are in Lenin Sarani, Sukia Street and College Street (areas prone to flooding),” said a civic official.

The city and its neighbourhood today experienced wet, windy weather because of the deep depression over the Orissa and Bengal coastlines but the Met office said in the evening that conditions would improve.

“The deep depression moved past Digha this afternoon. It is continuing to move in the north-northwesterly direction towards Jharkhand. The good news is, it is weakening steadily and things will only improve,” said Gokul Chandra Debnath, the director of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore.

As a precaution, the government began preparations in the Surderbans to move people to safer shelters, chastened by its experience of cyclone Aila that had devastated the area.

The deep depression started as a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal off Orissa on Thursday.

Around 8.30am today, it lay centred 70km southeast of Balasore and 150km south of Calcutta. The system continued to move in a north-northwesterly direction and crossed the Bengal coast near Digha this afternoon where the rough waters swept away 54-year-old Ashis Chakraborty, a tourist from Calcutta who had gone bathing.

Rainfall in most places over Gangetic Bengal is likely to be “heavy to very heavy” in the next 24 hours, the Met office said. “It is safe to say the worst has passed. Things will steadily get better, though most parts of Gangetic and south Bengal (East and West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia) will get heavy rain till noon tomorrow,” Debnath said.

The Met office added that wind speeds may reach 75km per hour off the Bengal coast in the next 24 hours.

The Met office said Calcutta today got 45.5mm of rain, but the municipal corporation said the city received 76mm rain till 11pm.

The airport was closed from 7pm to 7.15pm because of poor visibility caused by rain.

Weathermen in Orissa have predicted heavy to very heavy rain at a few places and extremely heavy rain (over 25cm) in isolated places.