On Wednesday, I went for a walk in the rain at 11 in the morning. It was not pleasant. The blustery wind pushed the rain through my poncho. At the end of half an hour I realized that it would have been easier to walk without rain gear; at least it would have presented a smaller surface for the wind to push against.
By noon, the wind had picked up further. The remnants of our cyclone preparation for June served us well. The windows rattled, and only a little water seeped in from the balcony. Outside was a scene from a nightmare. Trees swayed crazily in the wind (between 80 and 100 Km/h, as we found later, double that when channeled between buildings). I could hear cracks of branches breaking off, so close that it sounded like thunder. You can hear it once in the video above. The next day I would see the extent of the damage when I went for a walk; the featured photo is one from that walk.
Grainy photos kept coming in all day from friends: flood waters and destroyed traffic lights on Marine Drive, the roof over the DY Patil stadium (where some IPL cricket matches are held) destroyed, the iconic sign atop the stock exchange tumbled by the winds, knee deep water in one of the largest hospitals in the city, even the unloading facilities at the port damaged.
TV is pretty bad at reporting anything unexpected. Coverage started late in the evening, and talked only about flooding of roads. The rain was no worse than the extreme rain that we get once in the season. The “editorial oversight” that TV channels are so proud of completely missed the real story: the wind. Google News reflects perforce the editorial biases of media, so until now there is no overview of what happened. I had to mark every photo I got on a map to see where the winds had hit hardest: it was everywhere in the city. I suppose the surrounding areas were not spared either.
If the photos above don’t tell you enough, this last video should tell you how bad the storm was. No individual event can be attributed to climate change. But when events like Wednesday’s become more common, uncommitted thinking cannot blame anything else. The seas are hotter than they ever were in human memory. By heating the air above them, they are bound to create deadly storms.
Even now I can hear gardeners cleaning up the remnants of the trees (two hundred were uprooted in the storm, most trees lost branches). One of our neighbouring buildings lost electrical power until its basement could be drained of water; this took twenty four hours. The high density houses along the sea were completely flooded for a day. If the people who live there move away they will lose their livelihood. But when they do, the middle class will lose their maids and cooks. This is what climate change looks like: a mounting burden of problems, unequally borne by different people.
Gosh! That last video was scary!
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Yes, quite
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The winds look so strong, hope everyone is safe 🙏
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There was ample warning. And also with the COVID lockdown still partly on, there were few people on the road.
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen winds that strong! Stay safe!
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Thank you
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The videos – particularly the last one – were eye-opening. So glad you’re safe, and I hope that can be said for your whole community.
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Thank you. It can be. Lot of property damage, but no reports of lives lost.
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Wow – frightening. Seems like change is upon us.
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Yes, it does look like that.
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I am glad you are safe and my heart goes out to those who have been flooded out.
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Yes, those people had a harrowing day and night, and I’m sure several hard days to ahead to clean out their houses again. Thank you.
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When we first moved to Florida, one of the worst storms in the area was called the “No Name Storm” because forecasters had completely missed it, and unlike tropical storms and hurricanes, it had no name.
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I guess you remember a really bad one by the year though. Like the cloudburst that gave us 1 meter of rain in 8 hours, back in 2005.
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Was the last video clicked by you?
I received that as a Whatsapp video in a group.
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No, it was clicked by a friend on her balcony. I’m not surprised it has gone around; it is so powerful in saying exactly what happened in Mumbai.
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