Fierce winds, thunder, lightning and power failures hit most parts of the State; fire services kept on toes all throughout Monday night
TEAM HERALD
PORVORIM: Normal life was thrown out of gear as a thunderstorm hit Porvorim and surrounding villages late Monday night, plunging most parts of Porvorim, Britona, Saloi and Socorro into darkness for as long as 12 hours.
Though the storm accompanied by thunder, lightning and strong winds lasted for a short period, it left behind a trail of uprooted trees and electricity poles. Two electricity poles, one each at Torda and Kharrem were uprooted, while trees fell on electricity wires at Salai, Britona, Betim and Socorro. Transformers were also damaged at a couple of places, disrupting power supply in most parts of Porvorim and adjoining villages.
The power sub station at Porvorim initiated emergency restoration works at night itself and managed to restore electricity supply by Tuesday evening.
Assistant engineer Anil Kumar and his subordinate staff had to work full night to make arrangements to cut trees and restore power supply. Due to non-availability of power, the residents residing in multi-storey buildings in Porvorim could not pump water to their overhead water tanks.
On Sunday night, a tree fell on electricity wires near Krantinagar in Porvorim due to winds and heavy showers that lashed Porvorim. The electricity department summoned the fire brigade personnel to cut the tree. Due to snapping of electricity wires, the residents of Krantinagar, Oval Park and Housing Board locality were without power supply for over 5 hours.
CANACONA
CANACONA: Traffic was disrupted for nearly four hours when a large tree uprooted along the NH17 highway at Karmalghat in Canacona taluka late Monday night.
According to fire services, they got information at about 4.30 am that a tree uprooted along the NH17 at Pisonnem-Barcem, the foot of Karmalghat on Margao side, disrupting traffic since 3.30 am.
Sources informed that the fire personnel rushed to the site and it took over two hours to clear the tree and restore the traffic. The road was finally cleared at about 6.35 am, before the fire personnel rushed to Mirandawada-Agonda, where another tree came crashing down on a stationary bus (GA-09-U-2305). The bus owner, Denny Miranda, suffered a loss of about Rs 50,000.
Meanwhile, power supply continued to be erratic for the second night in Canacona, leaving several residents fuming till Tuesday morning.
An inter-state bus was also involved in an accident after it collided head-on with an inter-state truck at Partagali. No injuries were reported in the mishap.
PONDA
PONDA: A number of trees and electricity poles were uprooted due to cyclonic winds accompanied by heavy rains in many parts of Ponda taluka, causing extensive damage and disruption of public utilities and services.
Power supply was disrupted at several places after trees came crashing down on it besides blocking traffic at many places. The electricity department suffered heavy losses due to breaking of poles and damage to wires.
According to reports, the house belonging to Namdev Bhandari at Gautan-Khanedpar was badly damaged after a tree uprooted on it, causing a loss of about Rs 90,000. Ponda MLA Lavoo Mamledar visited the affected site at Khandepar on Tuesday morning.
At Talaulim-Ponda, houses belonging to Anand Chari, Dattaram Chari and Balkrishna Chari were damaged after a mango tree fell on the three houses.
There were reports of uprooting of trees on the houses at Bandora, near Kamat Hospital Ponda, Shiroda, Wadi-Talaulim and Gaunem. A tree uprooted at Siddarud Math, damaging a house and a two-wheeler and a four wheeler.
Trees and braches of trees also fell at Khandepar, Agapur, Marcaim, Kavlem, Shiroda, Borim and near Saibaba Temple, blocking the roads.
The Ponda fire services and the electricity department personnel were kept on their toes and worked hard to clear the trees uprooted on the houses, roads and electricity poles besides restoring power supply.
Some residents from Durbhat complained that the power supply was not restored till late Tuesday night.
At Mamlatdar’s office road at Tisk-Ponda, a coconut tree damaged two electricity poles, while a transformer was gutted in fire at Gaunem.
BICHOLIM
MAYEM/BICHOLIM: Torrential rains accompanied by gusty winds created havoc in different places in Bicholim taluka late Monday night.
According to fire service personnel, trees damaged compound walls of Ramakant Shirodkar (Kumbhrwada-Mayem) and Bhiwa Parab (Tambdarasta-Mulgao), causing a loss of about Rs 20,000. The houses belonging to Shanu Vaidhya (Tarabhat-Chorao) and Uttam Surlikar (Kotkarwada-Surla) were also damaged, while power supply was also interrupted at many places.
Incidents of trees falling on the roads were reported at Sarvan, Mayem Surla and many other places in Bicholim.
Trees also fell on the electricity wires at Kumbharwada-Mayem, causing a loss of Rs 2,000 to the electricity department.
Power supply was interrupted at many places and was not restored till Tuesday evening at some places, while telephone lines were out of service.
The firemen team comprising Bharat Govekar, Ashok Parab, Sandeep Parab, Jayesh Candolkar, Fatu Naik, Vinayak Ugvekar, Sudha Gaonkar, Santosh Mhapsekar, Anand Naik, Ajay Gholkar, Minesh Agarwadekar, Manoj Salgonkar and Deelip Gawas cleared the trees under the guidance of ASFO Atchut Dhawaskar.
