Pune: The heavy downpour that started on Wednesday evening reminded Punekars of the similar havoc rain had played on September 25 last year… due to this fear the disaster management cell and the ward offices of the Pune Municipal Corporation received 300 calls within 8 hours after it started raining on Wednesday. However, since there was no casualty the PMC officials heaved a sigh of relief.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had alerted the Pune Municipal Corporation on Wednesday morning about the thunderstorms and very heavy rainfall that was expected later in the day. The alert was sounded on Wednesday morning at 10 am. Based on this, the Pune Municipal Corporation informed the disaster management cell and all of its ward offices to be alert and prepared to rescue and help citizens. The road department and water supply department of the PMC was also informed. The PMC had kept its resources ready to evacuate citizens and shift them to 60 schools at 39 different locations in respective ward offices.

On Wednesday evening, 5pm onward, the intensity of rainfall increased. The highest rainfall was recorded between 9pm to 11.30pm on Wednesday night. Since then the disaster management cell and the ward offices of PMC started receiving calls from citizens.

Citizens calling the helplines were complaining about water logging on roads, society parking getting filled with water, water streams flooding and society compound walls beginning to crack due to the water flow pressure. The citizens who called on the helplines were provided with the concerned ward official numbers and teams of PMC employees were also sent to those locations.

Gajanan Sonune, head of the disaster management cell said, most of the citizens who called the helpline were worried about the situation that would unfold as they recalled the horrifying experience of last year. Since the rainfall intensity was high most of the calls were about water logging. The fire brigade department also received calls from citizens till the wee hours of Thursday. Fire brigade received 50 calls from citizens, PMC Fire Chief Prashant Ranpise informed.