Devastating thunderstorm disrupts power supply in Barak Valley

April 28: Life came to a standstill when a devastating thunderstorm that included heavy winds accompanied by spells of rain made Sunday afternoon very horrible. The storm toppled power poles and blew tree branches onto the main road in almost all the three districts of Barak Valley. Many houses, especially in the rural areas of the valley crumbled due to the storm.

Electric poles had fallen down cutting off power. Trees fell on power lines breaking them. The windstorm also disrupted traffic in the city as road users preferred to stay at safer places along the roads. The natural catastrophe resulted in people spending the night without electricity which ultimately resulted in shortage of water at home. However, though there was loss of property but no loss of life or injury to anyone was reported as yet.

Scene of storm at Silchar

While speaking to way2barak in the evening, Nitish Nath, SDO of APDCL at Panpatty office, Silchar, said that the storm toppled many electric poles. Electricity lines were also severed at many parts of the district. Mr. Nath said, “We are trying our level best to restore the power supply but we cannot say with certainty whether electricity could be supplied throughout the district. As it is Sunday, we are finding it very difficult to manage labourers for getting the uprooted trees and electric poles cleared from the strategic points. However, we are leaving no stones unturned and are restoring the service phase-wise. Power supply was restored at Rangirkhari area of Silchar at around 7 PM.”

Mobile phones could not be charged, batteries went off and to top it all people were left with almost no water. Since water tanks can be filled only when there is power supply, the failures due to storm disrupted normal life to a great extent.

Meanwhile, Meteorology Department, Hyderabad informed that Fani cyclonic storm is going to intensify from severe to very severe cyclonic storm in next 24 hours. Now it’s moving towards north westward and from May 1 onward, it will move north eastward.