KARACHI: At least six persons, including two children, died from electrocution after a rain spell lashed the metropolis on Thursday, disrupting power supply in many localities and damaging civic infrastructure, rescuers and citizens said.

Chhipa volunteers shifted the bodies to different hospitals.

Two labourers died from electrocution at Pankha Hotel in Shershah. The dead were identified as Mohammed, 35, and Wasil Shah.

Five-year-old Noor Sharif was electrocuted in Ittehad Town, while 12-year-old Mazhar Altaf died from an electric shock at Chhota Maidan in Nazimabad.

Rescue sources said 45-year-old Zaheer was electrocuted at Mangal Bazaar in Orangi Town and 35-year-old Mohammed Wasif in Ghazi Brohi Goth, Malir.

Traffic and power woes increase

A large number of people, particularly office workers and shoppers, in their rush to go home, were caught in traffic jams for hours and faced great hardship on almost all major thoroughfares, following up to two inches of rain.

Many areas in the city also experienced power outages, and wires lay exposed, posing danger to pedestrians. Owing to low visibility vehicles inched forward slowly on thoroughfares that resulted in long queues and traffic jams. Traffic woes increased with drivers rushing at intersections instead of waiting for their turn.

Rainwater collected at some low-lying areas, which gradually receded.

Traffic jams were seen on almost all thoroughfares, including Sharea Faisal, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road, M.A. Jinnah Road, Burnes Road, Frere Road, Preedy Street, Nishtar Road, Shahrah-i-Pakistan and Korangi Road.

Many motorcyclists also reported injuries while many vehicles caught in traffic jams ran out of fuel which further aggravated the traffic situation.

Public transport was mostly unavailable soon after the rain began, leaving commuters high and dry without the means to return home. Most had no option but to either enter overcrowded vehicles or climb on to the rooftops of a few buses or minibuses, already stuck in traffic.

Responding to queries by Dawn, a Met official said that the rain started at around 5:30 in the evening and continued till around 7pm and Landhi received the heaviest amount of rainfall of about 48.5mm — slightly less than 2 inches.

A traffic jam on I.I. Chundrigar Road on Thursday evening.—White Star

Other places in the city where the Met office could collect data from include PAF on Sharea Faisal (33mm), Pehlwan Goth (28mm), Airport Jinnah Terminal (24mm), Gulistan-i-Jauhar (17mm), Gulshan-i-Hadeed (15mm), North Karachi (12mm), Nazimabad (11mm) and PAF Base Masroor (11mm).

The Met office said that the maximum temperature recorded in the city on Thursday was 34 degrees Celsius and the minimum temperature was 29 degrees Celsius with humidity — amount of moisture in the atmosphere — 70 per cent.

The weather in the city on Friday is expected to be partly cloudy with chances of thundershowers / rain with the maximum temperature to remain between 36 and 38 degrees Celsius.

Other towns in the province also received rains including Nawabshah (21mm), Mithi (18mm), Mirpurkhas (6mm), Badin (4mm), Chhor (2mm) and Thatta (1mm), while Padidan received only traces.

The Met department also issued a warning that widespread rain / thundershowers (with scattered heavy to very heavy in lower Sindh including Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions) were expected in the province from Friday to Monday. The official warned that heavy falls could generate urban flooding in Karachi, Hyderabad and other towns.

He added that owing to heavy rains in lower Sindh, sea conditions were likely to remain rough to very rough along the Sindh-Makran coast from Thursday to Monday and fishermen were advised to remain vigilant.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2015

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