Calangute, Candolim bear brunt of rain fury

CALANGUTE: The incessant rains since Monday have thrown life out of gear in the coastal tourist hub of Calangute-Candolim with a large number of shops and restaurants remaining closed on Wednesday and even the streets wearing a deserted look.
Strong cyclonic wind uprooted trees in parts of Bardez disrupting power supply. At Candolim in Bardez taluka, two engineers namely assistant engineer P Joy and junior engineer S Shaikh had a miraculous escape when a huge mango tree got uprooted while both engineers were supervising the restoration of work of disrupted electrical lines.
Similarly huge trees got uprooted at Anjuna, Ucassim, Nerul, Revona, Assagao, Nachinola, Bhironda, thereby disrupting power in these areas for several hours. Also, to compound the issue, heavy breeze caused the transient tripping of lines, officials said.
Water was seen accumulated at a number of places, especially on the Calangute-Baga road because of the absence of drains. The Colonia Santa Maria road was completely inundated with water.
In March, the PWD had started work on "improving" the Colonia Santa Maria road so as to prevent the annual flooding of the low-lying road leading to the beach from the Baga road. However, the work was subsequently abandoned as the surrounding houses would have become lower than the road. According to sources, a pump has been installed to drain the water out, but the pump is reportedly not working, resulting in water-logging of the entire stretch.