Ranchi: Three passengers travelling in an auto rickshaw had a miraculous escape when one of them noticed a tree falling on their vehicle as heavy rain uprooted trees and disrupted traffic in many parts of the state capital since Friday morning.

Officials of local Met office said the city received around 25.6mm of rain from 8am to 5.30pm.

"The city will continue to receive good rainfall and there will be strong wind in the coming days," an official said. The worst-hit locality of the city was Doranda and Hinoo. However there was no casualty.

Ajay Kumar, a resident of Hinoo, said around six trees were uprooted in the area because of strong wind and rain. "A truck driver lost control and rammed into a tree uprooting it. The vehicle also damaged the tree," said Kumar.

Kumar, who was in a nearby bus stand when the tree fell on the auto rickshaw, said the vehicle had just stopped to pick up passengers when the accident took place.

"One of the passengers, who had to alight there, noticed that the tree was falling on the vehicle and raised the alarm. Two passengers along with the driver quickly moved out of the auto," he added. Clogged drains that overflowed on roads worsened the situation.

Sources in Doranda police station said they had to face tough time in clearing the road to ensure traffic movement. "State revenue and land reforms minister Mathura Prasad Mahato also got stuck in the traffic jam for a while," said police.

Since most drains are clogged and civic workers have gone on a strike, some of the traders installed a temporary structure over the drain so that customers do not have to wade through water to reach their shops.

Kolkata: Thirty-three trawlers and over 500 fishermen have gone missing as heavy rain continued to lash West Bengal. Only three trawlers have been traced by now and one of them is in Bangladesh.
The state government has appealed to the coast guard and Navy for assistance in the search operations.
Howrah, Kolkata and South 24 Paraganas have been affected. The rough weather has left roads and railway tracks waterlogged.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has delayed her visit to Delhi because of the emergency.

"We can't anticipate nature's fury, but we are doing our best to handle the situation. As for the missing fishermen, we are monitoring the situation. Even if these fishermen have strayed into Bangladesh, we've told the Bangladeshi authorities that they should not be harassed, and once the rain subsides, they should be able to come back," Mamata said.

Nashville, Tennessee - Summer weather brings increased chances of electrical storms, and two recent incidents in Tennessee underscore the dangers of lightning.

On Friday, a lightning strike during a thunderstorm set an apartment building afire in Memphis. Everyone inside escaped unharmed, but damage was considerable. Five days earlier, lightning struck a building in Gallatin, starting a fire that killed a woman who lived there.

While it isn't possible to be completely safe from lightning, there are ways to reduce the chances of being harmed.

The National Weather Service safety slogan cautions, "When thunder roars, go indoors."

Take heed, urges Dr. Corey Slovis, chairman of the Emergency Medical Department at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, because the consequences of being struck by lightning range from mild burns with no long-term complications to instant death.

The bridge over Dadhva river was today swept away following heavy overnight rains in Deogarh, the police said.

The 700-foot bridge connecting the pilgrim town of Deogarh from Jassidih was swept away around 5 am, disrupting road traffic.

More than 100 people have been killed in flooding in central and southern China. Some of the dead were killed after being struck by lightning.


Days of torrential rain has caused landslides and forced over 55,000 people to flee their homes. Dozens of people are still missing. In the central Chinese province of Hubei, the local river rose by five metres.

A new round of downpours is set to batter central and southern China in the next several days, local authorities said on Monday.

According to the flood control and drought relief headquarters of Hunan, torrential rain will sweep the central province from north to south from Monday evening and will last to Friday.

China issued a "level three" alert as the medium-to-lower reaches of the Yangtze River braced for more heavy rain, the China Meteorological Administration said on its website today.

Heavy downpours, including storms and torrential rain in some areas, will affect parts of Jiangsu, Hunan, Zhejiang, Anhui and Hubei provinces as early as tomorrow, the forecaster said. Landslides, floods and mudslides may occur as the soil becomes loose after a recent drought, it said.

Flooding has killed 94 people along the medium-to-lower reaches of the Yangtze River this month, with another 78 people missing, according to a China National Radio report yesterday. The region had previously suffered from a drought.

Authorities in the central province of Hunan said today that the cause of a landslide earlier this week that killed 12 people and left seven others missing was not manmade, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Beijing, - Rain-triggered flooding and landslides in south China have left 105 people dead and 63 more missing over the past 10 days, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Monday.

According to the official count, as of 10 a.m. Monday, the rain-caused disasters that occurred since June 3 have left 39 people dead and 21 more missing in Hunan Province as well as 29 dead and 10 missing in Hubei Province.

While in Guizhou Province 24 people died and 32 were missing and in Jiangxi the death-toll stood at 13, according to the ministry.

Prior to the rain, the provinces of Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi -- located along the middle and lower parts of the Yangtze River basin -- were stricken by a prolonged drought.

The ministry along with the National Disaster Reduction Commission on Monday launched an emergency response in anticipation of more downpours in central and southern China over the next few days.

Meanwhile, they ordered relief-supply reserve stations in 11 provinces and seven cities in these regions to gear up for the expected downpours.

Local civil affairs departments were told to enhance measures and work closely with other related departments to prevent flooding, geographical disasters and other secondary disasters, which may be triggered by the rainfall.

They were also told to help people by launching safety inspections, setting up temporary shelters, making emergency plans, and evacuating people in the most dangerous areas.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has advised fishermen not to venture into sea during the next 24 hours and asked the ports in south Gujarat to hoist local coastal signal (LCS) III, indicating rough weather and strong winds.

In Junagadh, lightning killed three people, including two children in the Uparkot, as Saurashtra experienced heavy rains on Saturday and Sunday. Junagadh district received maximum rains.

Heavy rains also lashed Rajkot city, uprooting electric poles and trees. Areas like Shubhashnagar, Astron chowk and Kotharia Road remained water logged.

Strong winds with speed of 45-55 km/h and reaching occasionally up to 65 km/h will continue along and off Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts.

"Sea condition will be rough. Fishermen are advised not to venture into the sea during next 24 hours," the IMD said. Heavy to very heavy rains are expected in few places in Saurashtra, Kutch and Diu in the next 24 hours.

For years, Gordon Stoner's rule for keeping the rain-soaked Northeast Montana soil from swallowing his tractor was to "turn when the ducks fly," meaning nothing short of a pond would cause him to turn the wheel.

Then the record rains of 2011 turned his fields to soup and kept his tractor in the barn for all but 41 hours over a three-week stretch in May. When he finally got into the field, his tractor's heavy wheels flattened the fooded groundhog tunnels below. Water shot like geysers from the prairie dog holes.

"I have never entertained the thought of not getting a crop in," Stoner said. "You eat an elephant one bite at a time. You just gnaw away at it, but we've got rain in the forecast and if we get much more, I don't know."

It takes a lot to get a Montana farmer to curse the rain, but some are beginning to. Hundreds of thousands of acres have gone unplanted due to unprecedented rains and the number of growing days needed to produce a crop is quickly dwindling. In addition, federal officials now estimate 1.4 million Montana acres-an area slightly larger than Glacier National Park-has been hit by flooding.