Storm leaves three dead, several injured

Brings respite from heat

A SEVERE dust storm accompanied by rainfall that lashed these three districts left three persons dead and several injured on Wednesday.

While two persons were killed and several injured in Azamgarh in road accidents due to poor visibility, one girl lost her life due to lightning. However, in Varanasi and Gorakhpur its effects were moderate and brought respite for the heat-harried citizens.

A 12-year-old girl, identified as Sonam, resident of Pichari village under Mubarakpur police station, lost her life when lightning struck the village. 

Besides, a boy of the same village Babloo was critically injured. When the incident took place, the children stood beneath a mango tree and  were collecting mangoes which fell due to the strong winds. Owing to heavy storm and rain, a jeep carrying a marriage party dashed against a tree. One person was killed in the accident and several persons, including the newly-wed couple, sustained injuries. Driver of the jeep was rushed to Varanasi for treatment. The deceased was identified as Matru (55). 

In another road accident, which took place due to storm and rain, an eight-year-old girl Madhubala, daughter of Sati Ram of Karanpur village, was run over by a jeep due to poor visibility and rash driving.  Another person, Dinesh Yadav (35) of Balipur under Jahanaganj, also sustained injuries when he was hit by a jeep. However, the storm brought down the temperature by several degrees in these districts.  On May 1, Varanasi recorded 43.8 degree Celsius, the highest this summer. 

A large number of electricity poles were uprooted and supply wires broken by heavy storm in Varanasi and Chandauli districts. The storm also snapped power supply to several places in both the districts.

A former faculty member at geophysics department of the Banaras Hindu University and noted meteorologist Prof BRD Gupta said that western disturbance was the main reason for the sudden change in temperature on Wednesday.

He further said that the temperature would again start soaring up within a couple of days. He predicted that heat wave would start sweeping the entire district after a couple of weeks.

Earlier,  soaring temperature had so far claimed two lives in rural areas of the district on May 6.

In Gorakhpur, too, the heavy rain after the storm continued for about two hours, bringing down temperature by several degrees.  When contacted, the MET office said that showers resulted from the western disturbance. Rain caused water-logging in almost all the areas of the city.

The low-lying areas of the city like Betiahata, Buxipur, Tarang crossing, Humayunpur, Nakhas, Reti Chowk, Ghosh Company, Bank Road were under knee-deep water.  The DM office also witnessed water-logging.