It's maximum anxiety

As it rains cats and dogs, Mumbaikars wake up to a fear of deluge, with majority of them staying indoors. The deluge of July 26, 2005, has made so much impact on the people that they react fast to similar situations.

“It is nothing but anxiety and hyper arousal,” points out Dr Harish Shetty, an eminent social psychiatrist. However, at the same time, he said: “In 2006, the tendency of hyper arousal was much more, but this time around, people are keeping calm. They have become more patient,….what has changed actually is that people exchange notes on social media and this often leads to fears,” he said.

“Over the year it fades out. In the case of 26/7 though, the impact was much more,” he said. “Whenever there are heavy rains, people tend to think of the incident that happened several years ago, and the incident comes afresh in the memory,” Dr Shetty explained. “Earlier during such rains, people used to stay home but socialise.They used to call friends for chai-bhajia...but we don't see that now," he said.

When there is hyper arousal – it results in avoidance, and people prefer to stay indoors. “Hence people want to go back to their homes, as early as possible,” he said and pointed out that big incidents like the July 26, 2005 deluge, serial train blasts of March 12, 1993, train blasts of 2006 and the 2008 Mumbai attacks, remain in memory for quite a long time.

Disorder and delay
*Navy on standby: ​The flood rescue teams with boats of the Indian Navy have been positioned at various locations within Mumbai. Specialised diving teams are based at Naval Dockyard in Mumbai. Fast interceptor craft and Immediate Support Vessels will provide Search and Rescue (SAR) cover within Mumbai Harbour. Helicopters, including multi-engine all weather choppers, are in readiness at INS Shikra and ships have
been deployed off Mumbai coast for SAR. The Joint Operation Centre (JOC), Mumbai operating under the Headquarters, Western Naval Command, also operates a Disaster Control

Centre and coordinates Naval SAR effort.
*Flights affected: Flights at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport were affected because of poor visibility. The delays were between 30 to 40 minutes. One flight each of Indigo and Jet Airways had to be diverted to Ahmedabad, while a Go Air flight had to be sent to Vadodara, airport officials said. The Juhu runway, which supports the ONGC operations, got flooded because of the heavy downpour.

*Upcountry trains hit: Several upcountry trains arriving and leaving Mumbai were affected and several of them were cancelled, diverted or rescheduled. The situation was the same on the Central Railway (CR), Western Railway (WR) and Konkan Railway. At several places, people were stranded in trains without food.