Remains of a storm: When Mumbai was drenched and waded in misery, 19 years ago

Nineteen years ago, on this day, a deluge overwhelmed Mumbai, Thane and Raigad districts in Maharashtra leaving over 1,000 people dead and rendering lakhs homeless.

A severe storm had hit the Mumbai Metropolitan Region on July 26, 2005 which was followed by heavy rains. Needless to say, a deluge accompanied it.

Mumbaikars and visitors to the Maximum City were left stranded on the roads, stations, schools, colleges and offices with traffic coming to a standstill.

Recorded as the wettest day in Mumbai till now, the city's old drainage system built during the British times played a huge role in the flooding.

Today, as rains are overwhelming Mumbai and some areas of Maharashtra, some Mumbaikars look back at what they endured on the fateful day.

"I had just joined ICICI Bank six months back," recollects Seema, a banker.

"We had to attend training programmes and my colleague was scheduled to attend it that day. Mine was scheduled for the ensuing week. However, due to personal reasons, he couldn't make it and he swapped the dates with me," she added.

The banker continued, "There were only light showers in the morning and I went for the training at Andheri (East), one of the busiest areas in Mumbai. By noon, it started raining very heavily. The intensity grew as time passed. By 2 pm, it was so bad that the training stopped and we were told that we could leave. They got us a bus to go to the station."

"We were 10 minutes into the ride when the bus stopped because of the high water levels. The driver told us that he couldn't go any further and that we could sit in the bus or go our way. So we started walking, holding each other's hands, and forming a chain," she also said.

"Eventually, the water started rising and rising. I was very scared as I was the shortest in the group and I feared that I would drown. So I stopped walking and got into a parked bus. Along with me there were two other girls. The driver said we could sit in the bus as long as we wanted to but in a few minutes, a cop came and asked the driver not to park the bus there," Seema recalled, adding, "The driver took the bus to a railway station, which is on normal days, only 15 mts away. That day, as fate would have it, it took more than an hour to reach there. The station was crowded and no trains were operating. We stood outside the station wondering what to do. By then, it was 7.30 pm."

"One of the girls who stayed a bit close to the station called us to her house. I didn't know her but we went there. We were served great food. I spent the night there. Next day morning, I walked till a point from where I could get an auto. And from there, I walked again. By the time I reached my home in Goregaon (West), it was 1 pm," she concluded.

On that day, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) recorded 944 millimetres of rainfall in 24 hours and the city was just not equipped to handle it in any way. The high tide and cloudburst had left Mumbai drenched in misery.

People were stuck on the roads and rail tracks, in offices, hotels, schools and halls on the way. Some stayed in houses and flats of strangers nearby.

The misery turned worse as the rainwater got mixed with sewage raising fears of a pandemic.

Ashwini Kumar was in his office in Worli when the rains started. "Heavy rains are not unusual in Mumbai. But this was something else," he said.

"I started my journey back after work in a BEST bus to Andheri. There were incessant rains and water logging everywhere. By the time the bus reached somewhere near Dadar, water had almost entered the bus and the engine stopped functioning," Kumar continued.

"It was not possible for us to get down. We remained on the bus waiting for the water level to recede. My mobile battery had drained off, networks were down, power supply was interrupted in many places or were switched off to avoid electrocution," he said.

I walked the whole night and reached home in the morning," Kumar recalled.

Many storms and rains have passed since that fateful day, but hearts of cities like Mumbai skip a beat each time monsoon arrives, despite what the movies romanticise or make a song and dance about.

By all accounts, it's time to have a relook at urban planning and where cities are headed as global warming looms large.