‘Mahad like a river, city under water’

Intense rainfall coupled with extra rainwater from Mahabaleshwar draining into river Savitri and inflicting it to overflow triggered catastrophe at Mahad in Raigad, with town and surrounding villages beneath water, two landslides within the district during which greater than 40 individuals are lifeless, rescue operations hampered by the floodwaters and disruption in telecom companies and energy provide.
Taliye in Mahad taluka, the place an enormous landslide occurred on Thursday night, is a village of 240 individuals, positioned 22 km from Mahad metropolis. Around 35 homes had been buried beneath the particles of a hillock that got here crashing down on the homes. Officials mentioned over a 100 individuals escaped the landslide as they had been out for work. Around 85 individuals had been hit by the landslide.
A rescue staff of National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) pulled out 33 our bodies on Friday morning. Some 50 individuals are nonetheless lacking and feared trapped beneath the particles.
“Thirty-three bodies have been recovered from the debris of Taliye village and the rescue operation on,” mentioned Raigad Collector Nidhi Chowdhury. “The postmortem of the bodies will be conducted at the accident site. Teams of doctors have already been dispatched,” mentioned Dr Suhas Mane, civil surgeon of the district hospital.

As rain has disrupted energy provide, rescue operations had been persevering with on Friday evening with the assistance of generator-powered lights.
In one other landslide in neighbouring Poladpur taluka, 10 individuals died and 6 others had been critically injured. The landslide happened at Sutarwadi in Govele gram panchayat space round 10 pm on Thursday.
Rescuers had discovered the our bodies of 10 individuals within the particles by Friday night. Thirteen others had been moved to Poladpur rural hospital for therapy.
A clearer image about casualites, well being emergencies and different mishaps, harm to property and automobiles in addition to livestock and animals at each the landslide websites could be clear solely after a day or two, officers mentioned.
With telephones and energy provide down, these with relations, family and buddies on the two landslide websites have been unable to achieve them.
Pranita Panchal, a resident of Kalyan, whose family stay in Taliye village, mentioned no communication has been doable since Thursday night. “Finally, my brother went to the village to check on my relatives. He found out that my cousin has died. He sent a photo of her body, which had been pulled out of the rubble.”
“She was staying with her in-laws, her five-month-old baby, 10-year-old daughter and husband. We have no idea about where they all are except for the husband who survived, as he had gone to work on Thursday,” Panchal mentioned.
Over a 1,000 individuals have been evacuated by the district administration from Mahad taluka, together with Mahad metropolis.
With the whole Mahad metropolis beneath water, energy sub-stations have been broken and there was no electrical energy since Thursday evening.
With no electrical energy, individuals, together with authorities officers, don’t have any entry to electrical energy even to cost their telephones.
The police are utilizing wi-fi gadgets to speak with the individuals.
The authorities mentioned that Mahad metropolis could not have electrical energy provide even on Saturday. Two 220 KV towers between Kandalgaon and Mahad have collapsed, disrupting energy provide to 80,000 individuals. Mahad and Poladpur talukas had been in darkness Friday evening – the second evening in a row.
Mahad, Poladpur, Birwadi, Vinhere, Vahur, Nate, Nangalwadi, Nagaon and Kumble in addition to 260 villages, together with Poladpur metropolis, Turbhe, Pitalwadi and Warandh have been affected as a result of collapse of 44 excessive strain 22 KV feeders and energy provide towers.
An official from Raigad district administration mentioned flooding is an annual phenomenon in Mahad. “People in Mahad city are used to tackling flooding up to six feet. Local residents evacuate their ground floor rooms and stay on the first floor. However, this time there is 14-15 ft of water and in several places, the first floor has got submerged. The whole Mahad taluka looks like a river. We could not even find the roads under the water.”
The NDRF staff that arrived on Thursday from Pune bought caught at a bridge between Lonere and Dasgaon in Raigad that was submerged in flood water. Two different roads to achieve Mahad had been additionally inaccessible because of flooding and landslides.
The NDRF may attain Mahad taluka solely on Friday morning. The authorities tried to airlift the NDRF staff however because of inclement climate, it needed to wait until morning. Finally, they accessed the realm by boats.
According to the district administration, round 110 villages are landslide-prone, and of those, 20 are significantly in danger. The administration has appealed to the individuals residing in low-lying and flood-prone areas to relocate to safer areas for the subsequent few days.
“The administration is in the process of relocating people. We have provided various necessities like clothes, drinking water, biscuits, food grains and medical treatment to the flood victims,” mentioned an official.
The two highways – Mangaon-Mahad and Goregaon-Dapoli – which needed to be closed have been opened for visitors after water began receding and rain stopped on Friday.
Teams of Navy and Coast Guard have additionally reached Mahad. They joined the rescue efforts with helicopters and boats.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has introduced Rs 5 lakh every to the kin of those that died in accidents because of heavy rain.