Bombay paralysed by record rainfall as death toll rises

DELHI - More than a third of Bombay was under water and the death toll was rising after the city suffered the heaviest rains ever recorded in India.

The BBC reported that at least 430 people had died in Bombay (Mumbai) and the Maharashtra state after catastrophic rain. Parts of suburban Bombay received almost three feet of rain in a single day. 

Reuters reported that rescuers searching in Juigaon village, 150km south of Mumbai, estimated that 100 people were killed when a mudslide flattened more than 30 houses, bringing the state death toll to 270.

The international airport, the busiest in India, was closed for a second day yesterday, because the runway was under water. International flights were being diverted to Delhi, 1000 miles away.

More than 150,000 people were stranded in railway stations across the city as all train services were cancelled. Electricity and phone lines were cut. India's largest city and financial capital, home to the Bollywood movie industry, ground to a halt.

As well as the rising death toll others were missing and feared trapped after their village was flattened by a mudslide caused by the heavy rain.

In Bombay, office workers walked home, wading through the flooded streets, or spent the night in their offices. Hundreds of children had to spend the night at their schools.

Jayant Shah walked through the night from his office to get to his daughter.

"It was safer that my daughter was in school because I was stuck in my office. I'm trying to reach her school now after walking and hopping in and out of buses," he told reporters.

"We were stuck in a bus all through the night with nothing to eat or drink. It was impossible to get out because there was water all around," said another man, Yamini Patil.

Hundreds of people die every year in the monsoon rains in India. But it is rarely severe enough to affect a massive, wealthy city like Bombay.

The last two day's rain in Maharashtra have been on an altogether different scale.

On Tuesday, parts of Bombay received 94.4cm of rain in a single day -- more than most parts of the world get in an entire year.

In recent years, much of India has been reeling under disastrous floods that have ruined crops and bankrupted farmers. Just two months ago, weather forecasters were predicting the monsoon would fail and the drought continue.

Instead India has suffered from too much rain.

The figures, read out to parliament by the Home Minister, Shivraj Patel, yesterday, are sobering.

In two months of the monsoon so far, 5.6m people have been affected by flooding or landslides in 16,000 villages across India. At least 633 people have died. Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed. More than 76,000 heads of livestock have been killed and 1.72m acres of crops have been destroyed.

It is thought the Bombay rainfall may be a world record for a single day. It broke the Indian record of 83.82cm, held by Cherrapunji since 1910 --Cherrapunji, known as the "rainiest place on earth, still holds the record for annual rainfall.

But Cherrapunji is on the top of a hill, so does not flood easily. Bombay is built across a series of low-lying islands.

"Never before in Bombay's history has this happened," said Police Commissioner A.N. Roy.

Yesterday weather forecasters were predicting the rain would continue for another 48 hours.

- THE INDEPENDENT and REUTERS