Sobo hit more than the suburbs

As the city braced for strong winds and heavy rainfall on Wednesday owing to cyclone Nisarga’s landfall in Shrivardhan in Raigad, the island city of Mumbai was more affected than its eastern and western suburbs. South Mumbai saw more tree collapses and fires due to short circuit. Experts have attributed this to its proximity to the landfall of Nisarga and its narrow geographical outlay that is like an arm extended into the Arabian sea. The southern tip of Mumbai is approximately 96 nautical miles from Shrivardhan. Shubhangi Bhute from Indian Meteorological Department said, “As per IMD forecast, south Mumbai and south of Mumbai was predicted to experience greater wind velocity due to its proximity to the eye and landfall of the cyclone.

According to a press release issued by IMD, however, the maximum wind velocity recorded in the suburbs on Wednesday was greater than the wind velocity recorded in the island city. While the island city recorded wind velocity at 50kmph, the suburbs recorded it at 58kmph. However, the highest wind speed in the city was 74kmph reported around 1.30pm by the Colaba observatory, according to KS Hosalikar, director general of meteorology at IMD Mumbai. Corresponding wind velocity for suburbs for 1.30pm was not available until

Wednesday evening.

Between 8am and 6pm, 117 tree fall complaints were reported in Mumbai of which 39 were from south Mumbai. Of these 39, 24 tree collapses were reported in A ward alone, comprising areas of the southern most tip of Mumbai.

BMC on Wednesday morning evacuated over 3,000 residents from Geeta Nagar in Colaba, and another 1,000-odd residents from Ganesh Nagar as part of its measures to evacuate people along the west coast of Mumbai.

Chanda Jadhav, assistant commissioner of A ward, said, “This is the tip of Mumbai, closest to location of the landfall of cyclone Nisarga. We had put all precautions in place and evacuated many people.”