The rainfall on Wednesday last crossed 200 mm at several places. Amreli had an average 127 mm, with Bagsara block recording 25.44 inches (646 mm) and Dhari block 20.44 inches (519 mm). In Bhavnagar district, Palitana had 14 inches, Jesar 10 inches and Bhavnagar 8 inches. Amreli, Bhavnagar and Rajkot had the highest rainfall in Saurashtra. Surat in South Gujarat exceeded those districts with 177 mm and saw two deaths. In North Gujarat, Idar too had 177 mm rainfall while Ahmedabad had 130 mm and Gandhinagar 97 mm; however, there were no casualties in these districts.
Amreli’s Bagasara block alone accounted for 18 deaths, 13 of them in the collapse of two houses and the other five in Pithadiya village, where a bus of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation was washed away.
At least 30 villages in Amreli and Porbandar were cut off. Road links from Amreli to Dhari and Bagasara remained snapped, with a bridge over the Shetrunji river damaged. Six major state highways connecting Amreli city to its talukas have been damaged. In Rajkot, 1,700 houses have collapsed or been washed away. Jetpur town was flooded by water gushing in at 200,000 cusec after all 29 gates of Bhadar dam, Saurashtra’s largest, were opened. Links to Porbandar were snapped when water released from the Bhadar dam marooned parts of 34 villages.
With several electric poles uprooted, many parts of Amreli district reeled under power cuts. Crop damage across the state is being estimated, with compensation to be decided within a week. Chief minister Anandiben Patel, who made an aerial survey of Amreli district and Gondal in Rajkot, declared Rs 400,000 as compensation to the kin of each of the deceased. Around 200,000 food packets were distributed, some of these packets were air-dropped on 29 villages of Amreli.
Around 4,000 people were evacuated from 17 villages downstream of the Bhadar dam. IAF helicopters rescued over 100 people from various parts of Amreli, with four helicopters pressed into service. These included 48 from Amreli’s Gavadka village, including 23 passengers, the driver and the conductor of a state transport bus that had been swept away. From Jetpur town, 90 people were rescued by NDRF and the Rajkot fire brigade.
