KARACHI: Strong winds accompanied by a spell of downpour on Saturday afternoon led to the death of three persons, flooding of low-lying areas, traffic congestion on roads and power outages in different parts of the city.

The city received more than 54 millimetres (over two inches) of rainfall within a couple of hours, while wind speed reached 44 knots, which is around four times of the normal speed with which wind blows in the city.

Rain with thunderstorm has been forecast for Sunday also.

Three people died in rain-related incidents, police sources said. A 12-year-old boy, Sujawal Khan, died and his two friends sustained injuries when a wall of a house in a Gadap City street where they were playing collapsed. Another boy, Mohammad Yusuf, 14, drowned while swimming in a pool of rainwater in the Sheedi Goth area of Shah Latif Town. Two other boys were rescued. A 27-year-old man, Najeebullah, died from electrocution in Jamali Goth, off the Superhighway.

Responding to Dawn queries, a meteorologist said the maximum amount of rainfall in the city was received at the airport where 54mm of rainfall was recorded. University Road received 33.5mm; Landhi received 26mm; Pehalwan Goth 22.6mm; North Karachi 12.8mm; PAF Base Faisal 10mm; Gulshan-i-Hadeed 5mm; North Nazimabad 4.5mm; Keamari 2mm and PAF Base Masroor received traces of rain.

The weatherman said the minimum and maximum temperatures in the city were recorded at 28.5º Celsius and 37 º Celsius, respectively. Humidity – the amount of moisture in the air – was recorded 85 per cent, he added.

According to the Met Office, rain with thunderstorm has been forecast for Sunday too.

Earlier, strong winds with low visibility affected the flight operations at the Jinnah International Airport as at least two flights were diverted, while the downpour that ended around 3pm after a two-hour spell caused outages in many parts of the city due to tripping of around 250 power feeders.

Speaking to Dawn, many power consumers said that electricity supply to their areas was restored after brief outages as a result of the downpour.

According to K-Electric, out of the 250 affected feeders, 50 were re-energized almost immediately whereas the remaining 200 were restored within a few hours. The areas affected by the problem included a few pockets in Defence Housing Authority, North Karachi, North Nazimabad, parts of Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Landhi.

KE says that still their overall system remained intact during the rain. “The power supply to strategic installations, including the airport and Dhabeji [water pumping station], remained uninterrupted,” said a KE spokesman.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2016