Indian Businesses Close Due To Bad Weather
July 27, 05
Extremely bad weather has brought many parts of India to a standstill. Trains in Mumbai are not leaving the stations, traffic is jammed in the city’s flooded streets, cell phone service died and the electrical power stopped, bringing business activity to a halt.
Mumbai, one of the busiest business hubs in the world and the diamond capital of India, was hit with one of the worst monsoon days in recent history. Within 12 hours Yesterday (Tuesday), the region was drenched in the heaviest rain recoded in the last 31 years.
Today the city is still submerged in water and heavy rains continue to fall. The situation is not expected to get better before the weekend. A local weather bureau issued a warning of a continued heavy downpour, accompanied by gusty winds for the next 48 hours.
Offices started closing down yesterday afternoon, as train tacks were under eight inches of water. The public transportation company BEST sent out several hundred additional buses, but they found themselves lodged in bumper to bumper traffic.
Authorities fear that at least 150 people have died due to floods and landslides outside of Mumbai, in the Konkan region.