This is my BOOMSTICK!

An Indian news source reported that the state of Maharashtra (the province in India that includes Bombay) got 37 inches of rain in one day.

37. In a row.

Here is part of an article detailing the effects of this torrential monsoon, from MSNBC.com:



“Approximately 200 dead bodies have already been recovered in the state,” R.R. Patil, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state told The Associated Press. The figure included 83 deaths in Bombay.

Another 100 people were feared dead across the state, which has been pounded by incessant rainfall since Tuesday.

Hundreds more have been killed by monsoon rains in the past two months, officials said.

Some of Wednesday’s victims were electrocuted or trapped in cars while others drowned in swirling floodwaters or were buried by falling walls.

Patil said rescue teams had begun distributing food packets and drinking water to those affected.

The torrential rains shut down Bombay, the capital of Maharashtra state, closing airports and train stations.

India’s previous heaviest rainfall, recorded at Cherrapunji in the northeastern Meghalaya state — one of the rainiest places on Earth — was 33 inches on July 12, 1910.

“Most places in India don’t receive this kind of rainfall in a year. This is the highest ever recorded in India’s history,” R.V. Sharma, director of the meteorological department in Bombay, told The Associated Press.

The heavy seasonal rains that had washed away tens of thousands of homes, along with roads, railway tracks and bridges.

Early Wednesday, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, the state’s top elected official, ordered a two-day holiday and called the army, navy and home guards to help with relief.

“Inflatable rafts will be used to reach stranded people. Please try to stay where you are and don’t leave your homes,” he said.

The state-run All India Radio reported about 150,000 people were stranded in rail stations across Bombay.

Hundreds of children spent the night in suburban schools.

Many travelers abandoned cars on roads after they stalled in water. Others stayed for more than nine hours on buses surrounded by swirling water on Bombay’s main highways.

“We were stuck in a bus all through the night with nothing to eat or drink. It was impossible to get out because there was water all around,” said Yamini Patil, a government employee.

Commuter Alex Anthony, 44, said it had taken him 14 hours to reach home in the early hours of Wednesday, walking on rail tracks and wading chest-deep through water.

“It was like a river outside the station,” he said. “Firemen tied ropes to lamp-posts and a chain of people held onto it to get through the water.”

The domestic and international airports in Bombay, among the busiest in the country, were shut down Tuesday, and all incoming flights were diverted to New Delhi and other airports.

“Never before in Bombay’s history has this happened,” said Bombay’s Police Commissioner A.N. Roy. “Our first priority is to rescue people stranded in floods.”



Can you believe that? If it was a cold climate, that type of precipitation would result in 37 FEET of snow in ONE DAY. The US has been hit by MULTIPLE HURRICANES that have killed fewer people than one day of rain in one state of India.