An orange weather alert upgraded to red in the middle of May. What does one make of that? It’s summer, and one would possibly expect that the alert was cautioning about a rise in temperatures, like the ones that Goa got two months ago in March this year. But, it wasn’t.
The weather alerts were warning about heavy rainfall and the forecast did not go wrong. It rained, flooding the streets, leading to trees falling, sludge sliding down mountain sides and disrupting normal life.
Pre-monsoon showers are not uncommon in Goa. They come in the late evening with some gusts of wind, and next morning the sun shines brightly. The humidity increases and makes the temperature feel a few degrees more than what it actually is. Goans know that, having experienced it before. Nothing new.
What we experienced this week was nothing we have in the past. It rained continuously, heavy showers followed by a constant pitter-patter of raindrops with just brief spells of no rain, but cloudy skies remained, threatening to burst at any time, and the temperature dropped.
It was very similar to a rainy day of June or July making one wonder whether the southwest monsoon had come unannounced.
What we experienced this week was nothing we have in the past. It rained continuously, heavy showers followed by a constant pitter-patter of raindrops with just brief spells of no rain.
Perhaps it did, and Goa was not prepared, and by the manner in which the State responded, it is not prepared for the four months of the monsoon ahead, which means that it can expect flooded roads, some landslides, trees falling and other rain-related accidents. This was almost a preview of what is in store.
In the midst of writing this, a message from the State Disaster Management Authority popped up on the cell phone, alerting of extremely heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours, and advising one not to visit flood and landslide prone areas.
One does avoid such places in the monsoon, but the curious part of this message was, how does the layman identify every flood and landslide prone area?
The videos going around on May 20 and 21 of flooded areas, sludge trudging down hillslopes, trees getting uprooted were not necessarily of areas that are prone to such mishaps.
Almost anybody knows the areas in their city or village that get flooded due to incessant rain. But this week, it was not necessarily these areas that got flooded.
Mapusa, for instance, is not prone to flooding, the contours of the land allow the water to drain off into the fields surrounding it. Yet, from Khorlim, Mapusa, emerged a rather disturbing video of a scooterist getting pulled by the current.
Mapusa, for instance, is not prone to flooding, the contours of the land allow the water to drain off into the fields surrounding it. Yet, from Khorlim, Mapusa, emerged a rather disturbing video of a scooterist getting pulled by the current.
What could be the cause of this? Was it nature or was it that the planning of the area did not take the lay of the land into consideration and disturbed the natural flow of water?
From Odxel came videos of sludge flowing into narrow lanes, after a pit on the hilltop of a construction site collapsed. Would one have thought this was a landslide prone area and have avoided it?
There has to be a history of accidents if areas are known as prone to flooding and landslides, and in the current circumstances, Goa did see new areas feeling the brunt of the rain.
Strange, we in Goa know that the rains will come. People ensure that their roofs have been retiled, that there is drainage for their driveways, taking all precautions to ensure that there the monsoon will not disturb their normal life. Why do the government authorities and the local governing bodies not do the same?
Besides this, and though it may be still far too early to prove anything, there could be a pattern emerging that would need further study. Early March, when it just begins to get warm after the cool of February, Goa got some extremely hot days, before the summer heat could actually set in.
Strange, we in Goa know that the rains will come. People ensure that their roofs have been retiled, that there is drainage for their driveways, taking all precautions to ensure that there the monsoon will not disturb their normal life. Why do the government authorities and the local governing bodies not do the same?
In May, before the monsoons, Goa received heavy rainfall, much before the monsoon could arrive. Why did this happen?
By Wednesday evening, the weather showed signs of clearing, but it clouded soon again and the rains came down. The orange alert remained for the next day, too, with yellow alerts till the weekend. Goa is getting a week of rain in the summer, that is definitely not normal for the State. This is an aberration and should possibly be studied.
