Maharashtra witnesses record breaking rainfall: NDRF Begins The Rescue Operation

Maharashtra: Continuous rainfall over the last 24 hours has led to floods in parts of Maharashtra, with three districts flooded and two districts facing a flood-like situation. In past 40 years, this is the heaviest spell of rain in the state in July. The Navy has been roped in for rescue and evacuation.

Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel have been employed for the rescue operations in the Konkan region. Sangli and Amravati are facing a flood-like situation, while Ratnagiri, Raigad, Kolhapur districts are flooded.

According to the news agency, PTI, report, more than 50 percent area of the coastal town of Chiplun in Ratnagiri, around 250 km from Mumbai and having a population of over 70,000, has got submerged in flood waters.

A devastating video from Chiplun shows a few people trying to rescue a woman from a flooded area. The woman clings on to the rope as she is pulled up, but just as she nears the terrace of the building, the rescuers lose grip and she falls into the water. Blocked road are the result of people missing after landslides in Raigad.

Mumbai, neighboring Thane and Palghar and other districts in the Konkan region have been experiencing heavy fall since the last few days. Seven people died and three were injured after a building collapsed in Mumbai's Govandi area, this morning.

The Mumbai-Goa Highway got closed for traffic due to severe flooding in the region.

The Met department issued red and orange alerts for several regions in Maharashtra that are set to receive heavy rainfall in the next few days.
Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray held an emergency meeting to take stock of the situation and asked disaster Management units and other departments responsible to stay vigilant and start rescue operations immediately, on Thursday.