Oct. 9: The rain and the accompanying gusts of strong wind wreaked havoc in the city since morning. Metro takes stock:

House collapse

A woman and her two daughters were injured when the scaffolding of an under-construction building in Topsia collapsed on an adjacent house this morning.

The strong wind blowing since morning might have caused the two-storey-high scaffolding to collapse.

Asha Pal, 47, was cooking in her home at 47 Christopher Road when she suddenly heard a sound around 7.20am. Within a couple of seconds, she found herself buried under the broken asbestos roof of her house. All around her were iron frames. Her daughters - Piu, a student of Basanti Devi College, and Ria, a Class XII student of Loreto Convent, Entally - were asleep in an adjacent room and suffered bruises.

"I shouted in fear. The loud sound and my cries for help alerted neighbours who came and helped me pull out my wife and daughters from under the debris," said Nimai, Asha's husband and an electrician. He was spared because the portion of the roof over the room he was in at the time had not caved in.

Neighbours took Asha to hospital. She suffered a cut in her forehead and also injured her right shoulder. "We took her to Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital where doctors treated her. She has immense pain in her back and shoulder," said a neighbour.

Portions of at least three more houses collapsed in the city. The roof of a two-storeyed building on Gopalnagar Road in Alipore collapsed around 2pm. About 12 occupants of the buildings managed to step out unscathed.

A portion of another house on Harish Chatterjee Street in Kalighat also collapsed. Both the buildings were old and dilapidated, a corporation official said.

Trees uprooted

At least 45 trees were uprooted by the twin assault of rain and wind and large branches of more than 20 snapped across the city.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation's control room received reports of 15 trees falling in several places between 4pm and 4.30pm. The city police said 45 trees were uprooted.

Narkeldanga Main Road remained closed for some time in the morning after a tree got uprooted and blocked the road. Another tree that got uprooted near Nicco Park slowed down traffic.

Tree branches fell on Raja SC Mullick Road, near gate no. 4 of Jadavpur University; at the crossing of BB Chatterjee Road and Rashbehari Avenue connector, near the eastern end of Bijon Setu; on the Prince Anwar Shah Road connector; near National Library in Alipore and close to Tollygunge Metro station.

Though the wind speed dropped in the afternoon, trees continued to be uprooted. A tree fell at the crossing of Jatin Bagchi Road and Southern Avenue around 1.30pm, at the crossing of Loudon Street and Short Street around 3.45pm and on Lake View Road around 4pm. Civic workers and cops were at work all day, cutting fallen trees clearing roads for traffic.

Empty roads

The streets looked deserted and public transport too didn't have too many passengers. So few was the number of vehicles on the road that traffic remained normal despite the rain.

A police officer posted in Burrabazar said there was half the usual number of cars and people on the road today.

Parking lots, too, didn't fill up. "About 20 per cent of space in the parking lots was empty. On weekdays, it is difficult to find any parking space in Burrabazar," said the officer.

Metro too ran empty.

Shops opened but with few customers around, many closed early.

Waterlogged streets

It didn't stop raining till evening and the streets remained waterlogged in several areas all day.

In the evening, there was ankle-deep water on Asutosh Mukherjee Road, between Jadu Babu's Bazaar and Exide crossing, near Forum on Elgin Road, on Darga Road, at the crossing of Eden Hospital Road and on a stretch of Belvedere Road, near CMRI hospital on Diamond Harbour Road, and near China Town on the Park Circus-EM Bypass connector among others. Both the road and the pavement were waterlogged on Shakespeare Sarani.

"Three manholes have been opened on Camac Street to let out the water quickly. All the pumping stations are working to drain out the water," said an engineer of the corporation's drainage department.

Power supply

CESC sources said its helpline recorded around thrice the usual number of calls on its help line since early morning, with residents in some pockets complaining of supply disruption, mostly caused by overhead cables snapping under fallen branches or trees.

"Power cables run underground in most parts of the city. But in areas like Bally, Behala Parnashree, Haridevpur and Kasba, where there are overhead cables, there were some minor disruptions," a source said.

The utility had deployed over 5,000 personnel to tackle any crisis.

"There was no major disruption. Most local faults were fixed by evening and supply was smooth even in the affected areas," he said.

Traffic woes

Traffic had to be diverted in several parts of the city this afternoon because of waterlogging and uprooted trees falling on carriageways.

At Girish Park and Vivekananda Road, buses and other vehicles were diverted to APC Road while on Lake Road, traffic had to be diverted because of a tree that fell on Rashbehari Avenue.

The biggest challenge lay in managing peak-hour traffic on Narkeldanga Main Road where a huge tree fell on the road. All vehicles heading towards Phoolbagan from Narkeldanga Main Road were diverted. The impact was felt on the Bypass, where traffic slowed down.

Local trains

Nine pairs of local trains from Howrah division and five from Sealdah division were cancelled because of the rain. Waterlogging on the tracks led to intermittent signal failure at Belghoria, Titagarh, Kolkata, Baruipur and Sealdah stations.

Ferry service

Ferry service on the Howrah -Armenian Ghat, Howrah-Fairlie Place, Howrah-Bagbazar and Howrah-Babughat, routes were suspended in the afternoon.