September 25, 2003	Thursday	Rajab 27, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: The gusty winds and hailstorm that hit the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad mid-night Tuesday left four persons dead, over a dozen injured and caused large-scale damages to the installations, including three light planes.

Those who died because of the thunder storm, hailed from Rawalpindi. Two bodies were found from Bani area, while one man, riding a bicycle, hit a cart and died on the spot. A child lost his life when the roof of his house caved in.

Four aircraft, including three Cessna, were badly damaged after the roofs of Rawalpindi Flying Club hangers at east of the Islamabad airport caved in during the thunderstorm.

The Cessna planes (AP-BEJ 172, AP-ANR 180, AP AOJ) and one cherapee PA-20 piper, were badly damaged after the roofs of the two sheds of the hangers flipped over them.

The chief flying instructor of the club, Captain Saleem Ahmed Abbasi, told this reporter that the damage amounted to about Rs25 million.

The thunderstorm also damaged five checkposts of the Airport Security Force (ASF) and two distance mark boards at Islamabad International Airport, a source told Dawn on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Ariana airlines that had made an emergency landing at Islamabad airport due to bed weather in Kabul and parked at bay number 11 veered due to strong winds.

The Boeing 727 that was heading Kabul from China.

The gusty winds disrupted power supply to the capital, uprooted hundreds of trees, damaged houses, destroyed hoardings and signboards, within a span of less than an hour.

The gusty winds sweeping across the twin cities were blowing at a speed of 100 to 167km per hour in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, respectively.

The power supply remained suspended for over 24-hour in various parts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad causing great deal of trouble to the people.

An official of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) said trees fell on transmission lines and transformers at the grid stations. The official said overall 25 per cent area in Islamabad and 45 per cent in Rawalpindi remained without power for over 24 hours.

The spokesman said 150 feeders were affected and 200 poles were damaged while 100 became ineffective.

This resulted in severe inconvenience to the people and despite the best efforts by the Iesco teams, some parts of the Federal Capital remained without power till late in the afternoon on Wednesday.

The spokesman for Iesco said 100 feeders were repaired and power supply through those points was fully restored by 8am on Wednesday while another 25 feeders were activated by 2pm and power supply was restored.

“Work was in progress on the rest of the 25 feeds and it was expected that the power supply through those feeders would also be restored by late Wednesday evening,” the spokesman said. They said faulty underground power supply network was the main cause of frequent power suspensions during rainy days.

Accompanied by a heavy hailstorm and rain, the storm caused a loss of around Rs20 to 25 million to the Wapda installations in and around the twin cities.

Meanwhile, hundreds of trees were uprooted or badly broken because of the gusty winds. A number of main roads including the parts of Islamabad Highway, Khayaban-i-Suhrawardy, the Attaturk Avenue, Margalla Road and many other main roads in the Capital were blocked at many points, as big trees fell and completely blocked the traffic.

The big street-light poles also crumbled at many points, including two on Khayaban-i-Suhrawardy alone. These fallen trees and twisted electric poles caused a lot of inconvenience to the sparse traffic on the roads and at some points the motorcyclists failed to control their vehicles and hit the fallen trees.

In Tarnol area, some houses were damaged when the uprooted trees fell on the roofs, which failed to bear the burden and caved in.

However, the residents escaped with minor injuries and no loss of life or serious injuries were reported.

SHER BAZ KHAN ADDS FROM PINDI: Dozens of stalls at the art and craft fare at Rawalpindi Arts Council (RAC) were destroyed by the storm causing a loss of millions of rupees to the stall-holders and injuring several people.

The affected people told this reporter that about 35 stalls out of the total 100 were uprooted and the items including blankets, dresses, toys, quilts etc were blown away from the venue.

“The storm was so unpredictable and abrupt that we had to run for our lives,” said Mohammad Shams, the owner of a stall. He suffered a loss of more than Rs200,000. He said one of the stall-holders, who tried to save his stall, received a severe head injury after being hit by a flying piece of metal.

When contacted the organizer of the fare, Shahid Shaikh, told this reporter that about 33 stalls had been destroyed in the storm. He said the blankets, Dupattas, shirts and pants were flying high in the sky like kites. He said the stalls would be re-erected before Thursday evening. The fare would continue till October 19, he added.

Meanwhile, the citizens have asked the Tehsil government to remove the signboards lying on the road sides as they were creating hindrance in the smooth flow of traffic.

The Meteorological Department here on Wednesday forecast more rains with dust and thunderstorms.