Storm kills 9, leaves Delhi powerless





A massive dust storm and thunder squall stopped the city in its tracks on Friday evening, bringing relief from the severe heat but left a trail of death, destruction and chaos across it. Nine people were killed as trees fell on cars or strong winds toppled brick piles while a crashing luggage pile at the airport killed a loader.

More than 350 trees were uprooted, leading to traffic jams across the city, power supply was snapped for up to six hours in several parts of the city and Metro services were disrupted just ahead of evening rush hour. The erratic power supply is further expected to trigger water shortage in the city on Saturday.

Until 4pm, Delhi was preparing for a heat wave, with the weather giving away nothing but a hot, dry summer day.

The Met office had reported the presence of a light haze over Delhi during the first half of the day because of which many thought that cloud formation would not be

possible. By 4.15 pm, the skies darkened and 15 minutes later, a storm was raging, catching commuters unawares.

The Met office put down the massive thunder squall to a 14km-tall cumulonimbus cloud that settled over the capital, splitting it in half, causing south, southwest and west

Delhi to face its lashing tail.

IGI Airport reported a windspeed of 114.8 kmph which resulted in massive disruption of air traffic. A loader was crushed to death by a heavy luggage pile while three aircraft were damaged as stray step ladders rammed into them.

Dr RK Jenamani, director in-charge, IGI Met, said Friday's was the most severe dust storm recorded at the airport in terms of wind speed after eight years. "The storm was strongest in the tail end area of a cumulonimbus cloud.

The 14km high cloud cell had come from Chandigarh and was moving at a speed of 10-15 kmph across Delhi. While this brought extremely strong winds, it did not cause much rain," he said.