Heavy rain lashes Andaman, disrupts normal life

Port Blair, Sep 5 (UNI) Heavy rains lashed Andaman and Nicobar Islands today inundating a few low-lying areas and disrupting traffic.

However, there was no report of any destruction or damage.

Inundation of several areas, particularly the Port Blair town, led to slowing down of vehicular traffic while poor visibility created problems for flight operations for sometime at the Port Blair air terminus.

Port Blair was battered for six hours by continuous rain today bringing the town to a standstill for some hours and enthusiasm for the Onam Festivals was nearly wiped out.

''A total of 32.8 mm of rainfall was recorded till 1400 hrs since morning while yesterday it was only 2.0 mm'' Naval Met Office of the Andaman and Nicobar Command infromed UNI.

According to the Civil Met department Andaman and Nicobar islands have received a total rainfall of 1,754 mm since January 2006.

The met department has predicted cloudy sky with moderate to rather heavy rain at many places accompanied with gusty wind for next 24 hours for these far-flung islands.

As these islands have tilted after the mega quake of December 26, 2004, many places have gone down below the sea level resulting in its inundation. Heavy rains today increased the water level in those places making the villagers panic-stricken.

In Port Blair, water-logging was witnessed in Gandhi Market, School Line and Austinabad area. Though this kind of heavy rain is common here but non-stop rain created trouble for everybody.

According to Met Department, heavy rains also disturbed normal life in some islands of remote Nicobar groups.

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