“If the rain doesn’t stop by night, the scenario here will worsen, the water will not only enter our houses and will damage all our household items,” said a resident from Camrabhat. Last month, the same area had been flooded following heavy showers, but no action has been taken by the local authorities to deal with the matter.
A resident from Mala said, “Every year it’s the same story. The minute it starts to rain heavily, the water level rises and this causes flooding. Last month, it had flooded, but no one took any step to tackle the problem.”
Goa received more than 75 mm of rain in 24 hours. Assistant Meteorologist of IMD Goa, N Haridasan said, “The reason there is heavy rainfall over Goa is due to after hour circulation over North East Arabian Sea and low land pressure over Madhya Pradesh.”
“Goa will not experience cyclonic winds as the rainfall is due to low pressure and not because of cyclonic formation,” he said and asserted that the rainfall will continue for the next four days.
The control room of Fire and Emergency Services at Panjim was on high alert as it received over 25 calls of which 20 calls were over incidents due to the heavy rain. A major accident was witnessed in Ribandar as two buses collided injuring 11 passengers.
In another case, a family escaped a disaster, as a tree fell on a car at Margao. In Mapusa, a compound wall of Indira Garden collapsed and a landslide was registered at Chicalim.
Margao received the highest amount of rain on Friday recording 50 mm of rainfall, followed by Sanguem and Canacona that received 40 mm rainfall each. No specific warning has been given to fishermen for the next four days.
