CANACONA: A sudden surge in speed of winds on Tuesday afternoon saw multiple trees got uprooted and fell over the residences, electrical alignments causing huge financial losses and traffic disruption in Canacona.
The Fire and Emergency Department in Canacona started receiving distress calls from all over the taluka, about trees falling on the houses, roads, electricity alignments. Fire station sources said they received 36 distress calls, mainly of uprooted trees falling at some places on the highway, internal roads and on the residential houses.
The fury of the wind uprooted coconut, jackfruit and teak trees, which fell on houses at different places in the taluka. Around five wild trees were uprooted and blocked the highway at Barcem, of which two trees fell on the old highway at Partagal and two at Bhatphal. These were soon cleared by the fire personnel allowing the flow of traffic on the road.
Sources added that roofs of many structures were also blown by the winds.
The power of the squally winds was so much that roof tiles and sheets were blown hundreds of metres away, luckily causing no injuries to human life.
Some of the most affected areas were Mashem, Galgibaga, Rajbagh, Patnem, Colomb and Palolem.
BICHOLIM: The Bicholim fire force personnel were kept on their toes with 37 calls on Tuesday which included 16 houses being damaged after trees falling.
According to the available information, several houses were damaged because of heavy rainfall and gusty wind that hit Bicholim. 16 houses were damaged while there were 12 incidences of trees falling on the roads. Two cars and one shop were also damaged.
The fire force officials informed that they are giving priority to those calls where there are trees fallen on the houses and major roads.
The water level of Walvanti River in Sanquelim and Bicholim River at Bicholim increased as a result of which Water Resources Department authorities were compelled to restart the pumping operation in order to pump water entering the town back into the river. The low lying areas in Bicholim town including Gaonkarwada, Bordem main road, Bandarwada, industrial estate area, some areas in Gauthan and Piligao village were submerged under water.
The water level of Chapora River from Sal village in Bicholim Taluka also rose due to heavy rainfall. All the villagers have been issued an alert by the authorities not to come to the river side until the water recedes. According to the information provided by Bicholim Mamlatdar Pravinjay Pandit, the Tilari Inter-State Irrigation Project authorities were also prompted to discharge water from the dam as water level rose to 108.42 metres.
MAPUSA: Heavy rains and gusty winds lashed Bardez on Tuesday while keeping the fire brigade personnel on their toes till late night.
Mapusa and Pilerne Fire Stations’ fire personnel were busy attending emergency calls on Tuesday as the gusty winds led to collapsing of trees on the houses, roads and power cables in different parts of Bardez.
Mapusa Fire Station received more than 21 emergency calls while Pilerne received 27 emergency calls. Most of the calls were related to uprooting and collapsing of trees on roads and power cables which led to blockage of several internal roads along with power cut for hours.
Parts of Bardez also witnessed uprooting and collapsing of tress on the houses causing damages.
