Torrential rain, flash floods, rail, road and air transport going for a toss, power outage, danger of electrocution – sounds like the summation of yet another monsoon Monday in Mumbai in July.
Believe it or not, residents of distant Washington D.C., found themselves in the same boat as Mumbaikars on Monday, which turned out to be their seventh wettest July day in 148 years.
The skies opened up over the American capital and surrounding areas, causing neighbourhoods to flood and lights to go out, bringing transport to a virtual halt.
The chaotic scenes that resulted seemed eerily reminiscent of Worli, rather than Washington. Pictures on Twitter showed cars barely keeping their windshields above water and the backyards of people’s homes turning into creeks.
According to The Washington Post, “The record-setting cloudburst unleashed four inches of water in a single hour, way too much for a paved-over, heavily populated urban area to cope with at the height of the morning rush.”
The US National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning as the surging waters drowned roads and forced closures of many major arteries. Airports and rail networks were also hit, causing delays.