Mumbai-Events rocked the city, they fought back !
Three events in the city, like a cascade, causing havoc to human life and property.
First - The Rains.
As someone said true - Nothing is good in extremes. So is the rains. It rained in excess of 900mm in a single day, the highest for Mumbai, and one of the highest for the country. The rains caused such a havoc oweing to four primary reasons - the amount of rainfall, the high tide in the Arabian Sea, the clogged seewage system of Mumbai City and finally the collapsing of the dam, leaving the water into the city roads and low-lieing suburbs. It caused a huge loss to human life and enormous property loses, estimated to be in excess of 2000 crores. The government wasn't prepared for such kind of disaster and all it's planning from the early months of this year was in vain. The met department is also hopeless in predicting the amount of rainfall or expectancy of such a disaster. With science being so modern, there should be ways to prevent this.
Second - Fire at Bombay High.
This was clearly an accident. The pictures shown on a news channel was just too much, it's like the place have been bombed or something. Huge & high flames with thick dense white smoke on the BHN platform, clearly reveals the extensive nature of the accident, caused due to a ship colliding against the platform. This is an accident and the ship crew can't be blamed for it. The weather among other factors caused this whole incident, casuing a $400 million hole in ONGC's pocket, who reported excellent stock results this quarter and kept the stock at only 3% down on July 29th. The Platform was insured but only for $195 million. This caused a few lives, those unfortuate ones who were gulped by fire as it broke. The fire drills at ONGC's drilling facility saved the day for many. A platform with over 100,000 barrels of crude oil inaddition to natural gas, would be out of production for at least 4 weeks, causing a loss in productivity and also wasteage of foreign currency to import the deficit. ONGC is a strong organizations and they are already begun work on war-footing to restore normalcy and make up for the loses.
Third - Stampeded at Mumbai Slums
Taking advantage of the natural calamity that paralyzed the financial hub, some anti-social elements tried to create an environment of further panic but spreading the rumour of a TSunami hitting Mumbai coast. People who were already in a state of shock and fear, just gave in to those rumours and started running for life with their families and belongings, causing another disaster- stampede, which claimed some 18 lives. Though these people wanted to rob the people who left their home in fear and insecurity, were arrested. No punishment is enough for these people as they have lost the basic humanity apart from being anti-socials. The law should be tough for such elements, to set a precedence.
Final - The fight back.
Mumbaites fought and fought like fighters. People fought with hunger, with time, with emotions, with life and of course with Water. As the city limps back to normalcy, businesses getting restored, flights taking off, trains rolling the suburbs, the fright of all those sleepless nights would haunt Mumbaites for a while.
~Somu.
First - The Rains.
As someone said true - Nothing is good in extremes. So is the rains. It rained in excess of 900mm in a single day, the highest for Mumbai, and one of the highest for the country. The rains caused such a havoc oweing to four primary reasons - the amount of rainfall, the high tide in the Arabian Sea, the clogged seewage system of Mumbai City and finally the collapsing of the dam, leaving the water into the city roads and low-lieing suburbs. It caused a huge loss to human life and enormous property loses, estimated to be in excess of 2000 crores. The government wasn't prepared for such kind of disaster and all it's planning from the early months of this year was in vain. The met department is also hopeless in predicting the amount of rainfall or expectancy of such a disaster. With science being so modern, there should be ways to prevent this.
Second - Fire at Bombay High.
This was clearly an accident. The pictures shown on a news channel was just too much, it's like the place have been bombed or something. Huge & high flames with thick dense white smoke on the BHN platform, clearly reveals the extensive nature of the accident, caused due to a ship colliding against the platform. This is an accident and the ship crew can't be blamed for it. The weather among other factors caused this whole incident, casuing a $400 million hole in ONGC's pocket, who reported excellent stock results this quarter and kept the stock at only 3% down on July 29th. The Platform was insured but only for $195 million. This caused a few lives, those unfortuate ones who were gulped by fire as it broke. The fire drills at ONGC's drilling facility saved the day for many. A platform with over 100,000 barrels of crude oil inaddition to natural gas, would be out of production for at least 4 weeks, causing a loss in productivity and also wasteage of foreign currency to import the deficit. ONGC is a strong organizations and they are already begun work on war-footing to restore normalcy and make up for the loses.
Third - Stampeded at Mumbai Slums
Taking advantage of the natural calamity that paralyzed the financial hub, some anti-social elements tried to create an environment of further panic but spreading the rumour of a TSunami hitting Mumbai coast. People who were already in a state of shock and fear, just gave in to those rumours and started running for life with their families and belongings, causing another disaster- stampede, which claimed some 18 lives. Though these people wanted to rob the people who left their home in fear and insecurity, were arrested. No punishment is enough for these people as they have lost the basic humanity apart from being anti-socials. The law should be tough for such elements, to set a precedence.
Final - The fight back.
Mumbaites fought and fought like fighters. People fought with hunger, with time, with emotions, with life and of course with Water. As the city limps back to normalcy, businesses getting restored, flights taking off, trains rolling the suburbs, the fright of all those sleepless nights would haunt Mumbaites for a while.
~Somu.
posted by ~Soumen | Saturday, July 30, 2005
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