Mysuru: Heavy rains lashed the city last night accompanied by strong winds and thunder, throwing normal life out of gear. Many trees fell and power lines snapped plunging a few areas into darkness.

Though there was a slight drizzle in the morning yesterday and the weather was cloudy, it stopped raining later. However, around 8 pm thick clouds gathered and by 10.30 pm it started raining heavily and continued to pour until early hours of today. There were no untoward incidents reported in spite of branches of trees falling in areas like Gokulam, Vinayaknagar, Vidyaranyapuram, Manasagangothri, and Vontikoppal.

There were puddles of water in the Oval track opposite the Crawford Hall and the early morning walkers and joggers were unhappy to see so much of rainwater. The reason for so much water accumulation is that the ground still does not have a proper drainage facility and this in spite of lots of money being spent to lay an international track, said the walkers.

Drain water was overflowing near CITB choultry in Hebbal affecting flow of traffic this morning. There was no power in Hebbal first, second and third stage since midnight. Rainwater entered houses in low lying area Manjunathapura, near Yadavagiri and the residents had to pump water out of their houses.

With CESC taking preventive measures by cutting branches of trees on Adichunchangiri Road in Kuvempunagar, no tree or branches fell. However, despite several complaints to the authorities concerned to remove the tree which was leaning dangerously in Gokulam 3rd Stage here, no action was taken which has resulted in the tree being uprooted due to rains yesterday and has fallen on the house of one H.R. Balakrishna in the locality, damaging the building.

An electric pole was bent when a huge tree on the road connecting Bogadi and Hunsur road near SDN Wadiyar Cricket Stadium was uprooted and fell on it.

The rainwater also entered more than 40 houses in Siddartha Layout due to lack of storm water drain facility. A resident of the area Chidambar said that since there is no coordination between Karanji Kere and Zoo authorities, the storm water drain has not been built and this results in flooding of water in the houses. This problem has persisted and no action is being taken, he charged.

Rain enters Coroporation building

The rain did not spare even the heritage building of the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) as it entered the  leaking pipes from the rooftop. This resulted  in the water spilling into the record room where the birth and death certificates are kept. Several other records and computer wires also are damaged. Corporator Balasubramanya (Snake Shyam) on hearing the news rushed to the Corporation along with the Abhaya team and tried to shift the records to a safer place.

“The Abhaya staff was working hard and they did not have anything to eat. It is sad that the MCC does not care for its staff. I then went to a hotel in Mandi Mohalla and got them food,” he told Star of Mysore.