Heavy rains kill 18 in Uttar Pradesh

Heavy rains induced by the cyclonic storm Hudhud has left behind a trail of destruction, despair and death in many parts of Uttar Pradesh.

A state government spokesman Wednesday confirmed the death of 18 people, adding many houses had caved in eastern part of the state and standing crops had been destroyed. Though the incessant rains since Tuesday took a break Wednesday, many areas in the state capital remained inundated and water-logged.

Met officials said, the heavy rains since Tuesday here had broken all records and Tuesday witnessed the maximum rain in a day in October ever. While the past record of a single day rainfall in Lucknow was 46.1 mm (Oct 7, 2009), Tuesday's rains triggered by the Hudhud cyclone were 61.1 mm.

Many low lying localities here alongwith the Charbagh railway station, Thakurganj, Indiranagar, Gomtinagar, Chowk, Sitapur Road, Aliganj were water-logged.

Many trees were uprooted and power lines snapped as the rains, accompanied by gutsy wind slammed the state capital Tuesday. The maximum rains recorded since Tuesday were in Gorakhpur where rains clocked a new high of 142.1 mm in a single day. Wind speed here was 83 kmph.

Allahabad and Varanasi too witnessed heavy rainfall and the battering is likely to continue for the next 24-hours as well, the weatherman predicted.

J.P. Gupta, the regional Met director told IANS that within the next two days the effect of Hudhud would slow down and the rains would stop.

Cautioning however that the spell of rains might still continue, though in low intensity, met officials said the temperatures would remain low in next few days. Tuesday saw a fall of 10 degrees in day temperature with the maximum temperature being recorded at 22.5 degrees. This put Lucknow a wee bit colder than even the hill stations like Shimla.

-- Indo-Asian News Service

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