Mumbai received the highest rainfall of the season within just 12 hours on Wednesday besides the highest-ever wind speed, the city civic body said.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the island city recorded 215.8 mm rain, followed by 101.9 mm in eastern suburbs and 76.03 mm in western suburbs.
The ‘D’ civic ward, that includes upscale areas like Malabar Hill and Peddar Road, received 309 mm rainfall, while the maximum wind speed of 101.4 kmph was recorded at Marine drive around 4.15 pm, the civic body said.
“The Fire Brigade and its flood rescue teams are deployed at half a dozen Regional Reconciliation Centres with th required manpower and equipment.
“Three units of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were also active and they have been asked to be ready for immediate help in case of an emergency,” the BMC said.
The civic body has opened temporary shelters for stranded passengers and others at its schools.
Meanwhile, several roads like Mahapalika Marg and Colaba Causeway Road in south Mumbai were blocked and closed for traffic after trees collapsed due to high-velocity winds in the evening.
According to sources, several roads and areas in south Mumbai, which never witnessed water-logging in the past, were flooded and scores of vehicles, including BEST buses, were stranded on roads.
Many motorists abandoned their vehicles in flooded streets due to breakdown, which badly affected the traffic movements.
A BEST spokesperson said the civic body-run transport undertaking operated nearly 90 buses from outside various railway stations for various parts of the city.
He, however, said no BEST bus suffered any major damage due to collapse of trees, but several breakdown of buses were reported.
Several videos of rain havoc in Mumbai went viral on social media on Wednesday, showing floodwater inside shops, building compounds and slums.
Meanwhile, the BMC said the Vihar lake, one of the reservoirs supplying water to Mumbai, overflowed on Wednesday at 10 pm due to incessant rains in its catchment areas since Tuesday.
The lake has water capacity of 26,968 million litres.
According to the BMC spokesperson, last year the lake had overflowed on July 31, 2019.
Vihar is the second lake after Tulsi which has overflowed.
Mumbai gets water from seven dams.