Biparjoy: Barmer battles deluge after 1,056mm rain in 8 hours

JAISALMER: A "freak" spell of 549mm rain over 10 days in August 2006 was said to have spawned 20 lakes in Barmer.
Cyclone Biparjoy dumped over twice that amount at 1056mm in just eight hours on Saturday, leaving the Thar pocket battling a deluge of biblical proportions and turning arid areas into pools of peril.
Having pummelled Gujarat, the storm has roiled Rajasthan for the past 24 hours with downpours unseen in recent memory and 60kmph winds, knocking off power lines, flattening homes, uprooting trees and turning its desert denizens into water warriors.
A girl was electrocuted in Pali district, possibly from one of the power poles lying supine. Reports are rife about 4 to 5ft water in scores of hamlets, with 600-700 people being shifted to safer sites. Torrential rain has inundated many villages near the Pakistan border.
"Very heavy" rain is defined as showers of 10mm per hour. It spurts into the alarming category of "violent" if the rain is above 50mm per hour. Barmer received 696mm of rain from 8am Friday to 8am Saturday --- that qualifies as "violent" at 58mm per hour. The record 1056mm downpour came between 8am and 4pm on Saturday. At 132mm per hour, that would sink most conventional Met labels.
Udaipur, Jalore, Pali and Nagaur districts faced the Biparjoy blight, too; the elevated Mount Abu alone saw 210mm rain.
Barmer collector Arun Purohit and SP Digant Anand were out in the flooded areas as scores of other officials handed the distressed food packets. BSF, army personnel and civil defence teams were standing by.
Biparjoy brings torrential rainfall in west Rajasthan
Cyclone Biparjoy brought torrential rainfall in Barmer, Sirohi and Jalore districts on Saturday. Several villages were inundated and their residents were moved out by rescue teams of NDRF and SDRF in Sedwa, Sindari and Gudhamalani areas in Barmer district. A 16-year-old girl was electrocuted to death after a high-tension power transmission line fell on her at a village near Jaitaran in Pali district.
Flood-like situation was witnessed at some areas of Barmer district where more than 1,000 people were moved out from their villages and taken to safer places. "A team of NDRF was called at Barmer for rescue," said Arun Purohit, district collector of Barmer. The team was sent to Seewana area in Barmer where torrential rainfall was witnessed. At least 200 people were taken to safer places from inundated areas of Jalore district.
Mount Abu in Sirohi district received rainfall of 210mm, the highest recorded in the state on Saturday. It was followed by Sedwa (Barmer) where rainfall of 135mm was received, Raniwada (Jalore) 110mm, and Bidasar (Churu) 76mm. Rainfall varying from 50mm to 10mm was recorded at several other places in western Rajasthan.
Jodhpur division of north western railways cancelled 13 trains and trains to Barmer remained cancelled, according to railways sources.
Several trees and electric poles were uprooted in districts of Jalore, Sirohi, Barmer, Dungarpur, Nagaur and Banswara, reports said.
Radhey Shyam Sharma, director of the Jaipur Met office, told TOI, "At present the cyclone is weak. By Sunday morning it is likely to move towards Ajmer division."