PONDA: Heavy rains accompanied by thunder, lightning and cyclonic winds wreaked havoc in Ponda, as at least 26 emergency calls were received by the local fire station in less than fifteen minutes, on Friday.
Heavy winds toppled trees which crashed on houses, roads and electric wires and vehicles; lightening also struck at various places in the taluka damaging electrical appliances like TV sets and refrigerators.
Dark clouds began hovering over Ponda at 3 pm which turned dense in an hour and began to pour accompanied by lightning, thunder and strong cyclonic winds. This resulted in collapse of huge trees at Farmagudi, Priol, Kavlem, Varkhandem, Usgao and Ponda city. Since a number of trees crashed on electric lines, they caused power breakdown in large parts of the taluka for nearly five hours.
Till the time of filing this report at 8.40 pm, major parts of Ponda city, Kavlem village, some parts of Bandora, Farmagudi and Varkhandem remained without power. When contacted, the Electricity department officials said that their personnel were clearing the collapsed trees to restore power to affected areas as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Ponda Fire Station in charge Sushil Morajkar said that he has received many emergency calls and the same are being attended to by the fire personnel. However, he said, it would be difficult to complete all calls on Friday itself.
Meanwhile, Collem Sarpanch Gangaram Lambore called up this correspondent informing that lightning struck the houses of one Rafael Mascarenhas and Paul Mascarenhas and damaged electrical appliances worth around Rs 2 lakh.
Paul Mascarenhas received minor injuries in the strike, Lambore said.
