Thane, May 17: Hundreds of tree falls to flying rooftop panels and overflowing nullahs, Thane witnessed a heavy impact of Cyclone Tauktae with gusty winds and rains overnight on Monday. Kalyan-Dombivli and Ulhasnagar were among the most impacted places.
According to the Regional disaster management, from Monday morning 8:30 am to 4:30 pm In the last 8 hours, the disaster management had received 59 complaints of tree falls. Most of the tree falls were reported on roads, societies, cars and parked auto-rickshaws.
"We received two calls for part of the building fall at Laxmi building at Lokmanya Nagar in Thane. The other was a slab plaster collapsed at Fatima building in Bhoir compound in Mumbra. Around 21 tree branches fell and three trees were left in dangerous condition by cyclone. Three complaints of waterlogging were received to the control room," said an official from Thane disaster management cell.
In one such incident in Thane city, a tree fell down on a Honda City car with a doctor on the driver’s seat. The incident took place near Naupada police station, Thane.
"Dr. Ritesh Gaikwad, 45, was stuck in the car. A team of fire brigade, 1 fire engine, 1 rescue vehicle reached and started the rescue operation. The tree was cut and Gaikwad was rescued by the officials after half an hour. He was safe and had no injuries," said Santosh Kadam, head of RDMC, Thane.
A video of the rescue operation went viral where a huge crowd gathered at the spot to see the rescue operation. After Gaikwad was rescued from the car by the officials, the crowd cheered seeing him coming out on his own. According to an official, the tree chunk which fell on the car was huge so Gaikwad coming out safely was a miracle.
Videos from Mumbra too went viral where due to heavy rain, water from the Mumbra hills flowed down to cause a flood of slush and garbage on the roads in Shailesh Nagar and Famous Colony in Mumbra.
