Heavy rain ac companied by strong winds lashed several villages across Salcete over the past 48 hours, uprooting more than 20 trees, damaging houses and properties, dis rupting traffic and causing temporary road blockages. Margao Fire Station Of ficer Gil D’Souza said no casualties were reported despite property losses running into several lakhs of rupees. Strong winds on the in tervening night of July 6 and 7 uprooted several trees, damaging at least five hous es. At Colva, Leading Fire Fighter S K G Dessai and his team cleared a coconut tree that had fallen on a road and overhead power lines near the football ground. Fire Fighter C V Prabhu and his team removed a jungle tree that blocked the road near a former MLA’s resi dence at Navelim.
At Gogol, Dessai led op erations to remove a coco nut tree that fell on a house near Doctor Residency, sav ing property worth about Rs 10,000. Sub Officer C V Carvalho and his team cleared a jungle tree that fell on electrical lines near a church at Dharmapur. Fire Fighter M Y Hari jan and his team removed jungle trees that blocked the NH near the church at Navelim and the road near the Easy Buy showroom at Shirvodem. Sub Officer A K Velip and his team cleared a tree that fell on a build ing near Mahila Nutan School at Comba, while a teak tree that collapsed on the footpath near the BSNL Exchange at Comba and a jungle tree that fell on the footpath of a house near St Anthony School at Pajifond were also removed. At Navelim, D’Souza and Carvalho supervised the re moval of a banyan tree and a coconut tree that fell on a road near a general store, disrupting traffic. A jungle tree crashed onto a house near a private hospital at Malbhat, caus ing damage estimated at Rs 55,000. Velip and D’Souza led the operation, saving property worth about Rs 70,000. Dessai and his team also removed a dangerously hanging advertising hoard ing near Cine Lata Theatre in Margao to prevent a mis hap.
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On Sunday, Dessai led a four-hour operation after a mango tree damaged a house near a chapel at Benaulim, causing an estimated loss of Rs 1.5 lakh while saving property worth around Rs 2 lakh. At Raia, Prabhu and his team cleared a huge mango tree that fell on a compound wall near the electricity substation, saving property worth about Rs 20,000. At Pajifond, firefighters removed a jungle tree that blocked the road near Sap na Plaza, while Leading Fire Fighter D N Kotharker and his team cleared another that fell on a kiosk near Ana Fonte Garden. A coconut tree damaged a house at Nuvem before firefighters made the area safe. At Maina, Curtorim, a tamarind tree and two jun gle trees caused heavy traf fic congestion before being cleared. At Indona, Davorlim, Leading Fire Fighter S R Naik and his team, assist ed by an expert tree cutter, felled a dangerously leaning jackfruit tree threatening a house. Fire personnel also removed another hazardous tree at Vidyanagar, Gogol. In separate incidents, Car valho and his team cleared a jungle tree that fell on a road at Gogol, while Velip and his team removed a tree branch that had fallen on electrical lines near a bar at Benaulim.
D’Souza said more trees were uprooted across Salcete on Monday, with firefighters continuing branch-cutting and clearance operations late into the evening. Heavy rainfall also caused waterlogging in low-lying areas, particularly Gogol, Shanti Nagar, Davorlim, Ramnagari and Vidyanagar, inundating roads and resi dential localities. Fire officials urged res idents to exercise caution during the ongoing mon soon, warning that persis tent rainfall and gusty winds could lead to more tree falls and related incidents.
