Staff Reporter :A nor’wester accompanied by hailstorm and heavy rainfall lashed the capital Dhaka on Wednesday noon leaving two dead, injuring over 30 people, collapsing Supreme Court main gate, uprooting scores of trees and disconnecting power supply.Light to moderate rainfalls were also reported from several parts of the country, including Chittagong, Sitakundu, Feni, Srimongal Khulna, Satkhira and Madaripur from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning.Apart from these, the nor’wester also forced the Amar Ekushey book fair shut for three hours initially as the venue was submerged. The storm started around 11.50am and continued for 20 minutes triggering huge traffic jam on different city roads.Just before beginning of the storm, the city sky plunged into darkness – forcing vehicles to turn on their lights to navigate in the darkened roads for about 10 minutes. The hailstorm killed many birds also. People were barred from entering the both Bangla Academy premises and Suhrawardy Uddyan. Authorities finally announced the closure at 6.30pm.The tin-structure north fence of the fair venue in Suhrawardy Uddyan was damaged. Hit by the storm, the main gate of the Supreme Court Bar Council collapsed.Besides, many areas including Malibagh, Khilgaon Chowdhury Para and Rampura remained in dark till 8.00pm on Wednesday as the power supply and distribution system were heavily disrupted.According to official sources, the supply and distribution system of electricity in different areas of the city almost collapsed leading to a sudden power cut as the nor’wester accompanied by hailstorm and heavy rain began razing. City’s many streets went under water causing traffic jam.Immediately after the sudden rainfall, severe traffic congestion was seen in main intersections of the city, including Malibagh, Shantinagar, Moghbazar and Bangla Motor, as roads were submerged due to poor road conditions.Many commuters were compelled to get down from vehicles and walked through roads amid rainwater contaminated by waste.The hailstorm took place in different parts of the city affecting the livelihood of city dwellers, particularly the vendors, day labourers and rickshaw-pullers.When contacted, an official of Met Office said, as a retreating winter makes room for the summer, Dhaka city witnessed massive hailstorm with light to heavy rainfall on Wednesday morning. “We have been reported that different areas in the Dhaka city have received a burst of hailstorm with rainfall…. But we are yet to get detailed reports on hailstorm,” the official said.Alongside capital, Munshiganj experienced hailstorm with heavy downpour, the meteorologist added.Rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely to occur at a few places over Khulna, Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions and at one or two places over Rajshahi division. Weather may remain mainly dry with temporary partly cloudy sky elsewhere over the country.A meteorologist at the Met office said, rain may occur anytime on Wednesday or Thursday morning. Around 61 millimetres of rainfall was recorded in Chittagong while 42 mm in Sitakundu, 14 mm in Srimongal, 30 mm in Feni, 17 mm in Comilla, 47 mm in Madaripur, 23 mm in Khulna and 70 mm rainfall in Satkhira until 6 am.The Met office also hoisted warning signal-2 in the inland river ports of Dhaka, Tangail, Faridpur, Jessore, Kushtia, Khulna, Barisal, Patuakhali, Noakhali, Comilla and Chittagong while signal-1 was hoisted in the river ports of Rajshahi, Pabna, Bogra, Mymensingh and Sylhet.
