Nightmare rains paralyze Bombay

Monsoon kills hundreds near India's financial hub

? India’s financial capital was paralyzed Wednesday by the strongest rains ever recorded in the nation, with torrential downpours marooning drivers, snapping communication lines and leaving at least 200 people dead statewide.

At its worst, the rainfall descended in what looked like a solid wall of water, overwhelming Bombay, a crowded city long accustomed to monsoon rains.

“Never before in Bombay’s history has this happened,” said Police Commissioner A.N. Roy. “Our first priority is to rescue people stranded in floods.”

“Approximately 200 dead bodies have already been recovered in the state,” deputy chief minister R.R. Patil told The Associated Press, saying an additional 100 deaths were feared across Maharashtra state, where Bombay is the capital.

At least 83 people have died in Bombay, crushed by falling walls, trapped in cars or electrocuted since the intense rains swept through the city Tuesday evening, Patil said. Phone networks collapsed, highways were blocked and the city’s airports, among the nation’s busiest, were closed.

While Wednesday’s precipitation was still being totaled, officials said parts of the city had been hit by up to 37.1 inches of rain Tuesday, much of it falling over just a few hours.

People hold on to a rope to cross a street after heavy rains in Bombay, India. The strongest rains ever recorded in India shut down the financial hub, Bombay, on Wednesday.

India’s previous heaviest rainfall, recorded in the northeastern town of Cherrapunji – one of the rainiest places on Earth – was 33 inches on July 12, 1910, said R.V. Sharma, director of the meteorological department in Bombay.

Across Bombay, traffic was backed up all night and into Wednesday, with drivers abandoning their vehicles on roads turned into waist-high rivers. At one point, according to state-run All India Radio, about 150,000 people were stranded in railway stations.

Others stayed for hours on buses and trains surrounded by swirling water.

Rajesh Khubchandani, a businessman, abandoned his car and spent 15 hours marooned with several other people on a traffic island.

“We saw two bodies floating past. I don’t know how they died, but they just floated past early in the morning,” Khubchandani said.

Television footage showed crowds of people scrambling for food parcels dropped from helicopters by navy rescue teams as the bodies of two men lay sprawled in the streets of a Bombay neighborhood.

Such scenes have never before been seen in Bombay, a cosmopolitan city also known as Mumbai that is home to India’s financial and movie industries. Every year, Bombay is brought to a halt for a day or two by heavy monsoon rains that drench the country between June and September and often leave hundreds dead nationwide.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil said 633 people have died nationwide since June 1 in the heavy seasonal rains, which have washed away tens of thousands of homes, roads, railway tracks and bridges.