PESHAWAR: Heavy rain lashed Peshawar and adjoining districts on Sunday afternoon in intervals, causing power failure and flooding of roads.

It started raining on Sunday afternoon and within few hours the main roads in Peshawar were flooded with rainwater, causing inconvenience to the motorists.

“It rained 33mm in Peshawar today and it would continue to pour for next 24 to 26 hours after intervals,” said Mushtaq Ali Shah, regional director at meteorological office in Peshawar.

He said that there were chances of heavy rain in Mardan, Peshawar, Hazara and Malakand divisions while in districts like Lakki Marwat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan there were chances of light rain.

“There is no danger of floods due to rise of water level in the rivers but there is fear of flooding on roads in the city,” said the official and right outside the Met office the road was closed to traffic due to accumulation of rainwater.

“Mufti Mehmood Flyover popularly known as Suri Pul was closed due to flooding of the road, so I had to take a long detour,” said Mohammad Ali, a motorist.

The roads passing through Peshawar Cantonment, right in the middle of the provincial capital, were closed to civilians on the rainy day.

Main roads like University Road and Khyber Roads were flooded with rainwater, causing traffic jams and damage to car engines. The Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar, a company tasked to keep the roads clean, was not in sight so the locals were using their own methods like opening drains and manholes to drain the road.

In some localities like Hayatabad Township, hailstorm coupled the rain. Although the rain brought down temperature yet somewhat increased discomfort of the hot and humid weather and inconvenience of the people was further increased when supply of electricity was disrupted and around 60 feeders were tripped in Peshawar.

“The staff is out to repair the transmission lines,” said an official of Peshawar Electric Supply Company. The power breakdown for hours on a holiday marred the celebratory spirits of the people.

Our Correspondent from Mansehra adds: The upper parts of Hazara on Sunday received heavy downpour followed by lightning and windstorm, which brought mercury down and people heaved a sigh of relief.

The rain, which started in Mansehra, Torghar and Kohistan districts, in the afternoon continued intermittently till late evening. The windstorm uprooted several trees along roads.

The motorists stopped their vehicles because of low visibility on the roads in upper parts of Hazara. No loss of life or property was reported from any part of the division.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2017