CANACONA: Canacona recorded 10.20 mm rainfall in less than an hour following gusty winds and thunderstorm on Sunday evening.
Gusty winds led to the uprooting of at least 50 trees, which came crashing down on the roads, houses, electrical alignment leaving behind a trail of destruction across the taluka.
Locals blamed the Meteorological Department for failing to warn them of the impending danger.
The Canacona fire officials were kept busy on Sunday from 10 pm onwards and within 30 minutes as many as 50 distress calls were recorded by the official on duty.
There were in all 38 calls of trees uprooting along the NH66, internal roads, houses, electrical overhead alignments and at least another half number of trees crashing down at other places. Locals also claimed that a few trees had fallen on vehicles.
There was a heavy downpour with the local rain gauge observatory recording 10.20mm precipitation during that time of the hour.
The sub-officer and in-charge of Canacona fire station Mahadev Lolienkar was assisted by leading fire fighter Tulshidas Desai, driver operator Ashok Gaonkar, fire fighters Ganesh Naik, Anil Talponkar and Darshan Desai in clearing the trees.
Sources at Canacona Fire Station informed that a few trees would be cleared soon.
The most affected villages were Gaondongrem, Cotigao, Poinguinim and Loliem wherein property worth Rs 60 lakh was damaged.
Agricultural crops, including banana and other cash crops, were damaged. The Agriculture Department after its preliminary survey estimated the loss to be around Rs 6 lakh.
It may be recalled that Herald in its edition dated April 27 had highlighted that there are several trees in entire taluka, which were posing danger. As many as 50 trees got uprooted within an hour, however, there were no casualties.
On account of the snapping of the power lines, the locals were forced to go without electricity.
Diogo Da Silva, a social activist from Canacona, said most trees that fell on the houses were coconut trees and despite complaining to the authorities these trees were not removed as the owners failed to follow the orders directing them to remove the same.
