Heavy rains wreak havoc in Bihar, red alert issued in 15 districts

A red alert has been issued in 15 districts of Bihar on Saturday as the state received heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours, causing massive waterlogging and traffic jams in several parts and putting normal life out of gear. 

In the last 24 hours, the state capital has received 98 mm of rainfall while Supaul and Darbhanga weather stations recorded 81.6 mm and 61.2  mm of rainfall, respectively. The Bhagalpur Observatory received 134.03mm of rainfall. 

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted that isolated places over Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are likely to receive heavy rainfall in next 24 hours. 

"Heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls very likely at isolated places over Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, East Rajasthan, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam and Meghalaya," the IMD said. 

In the wake of incessent downpour in the region, red alert has been issued in Madhubani, Supaul, Araria, Kishanganj, Muzaffarpur, Banka, Samastipur, Madhepura, Sahasa, Purnia, Darbhanga, Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Katihar and Vaishali.

The MeT department also issued orange alert in 10 other districts namely East Champaran, P Champaran, Poo Champaran, Shivhar, Begusarai, Sitamarhi, Saran, Siwan, Begusarai and Bhojpur.

Meanwhile, Patna-District Magistrate Kumar Ravi informed that all private and government schools have been intructed to remain closed due to incessent rain and waterlogging in the region.