Uttar Pradesh: Storms and rain caused massive destruction; dozens of trees, hoardings, and poles toppled; power supply disrupted

June 10, 2026

Following a day of scorching heat, a storm packing winds of 65 km/h struck around 8 PM on Tuesday, wreaking havoc across both urban and rural areas. Power supplies to hundreds of villages were disrupted as dozens of trees, hoardings, and utility poles toppled; several city neighborhoods were also plunged into darkness. A massive hoarding collapsed onto a car passing through St. John’s Crossing.

The vehicle belonged to the Director of Sant Ramkrishna Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Balkeshwar, and was carrying five people at the time; fortunately, all of them had a narrow escape. Meanwhile, on Fatehabad Road, sheds collapsed, causing auto-rickshaw and motorcycle riders to get entangled and fall.

Ravikant Chawla, the Director of Sant Ramkrishna Kanya Mahavidyalaya, stated that he had organized a bhandara (community feast) at the Hanuman Temple near St. John’s Crossing. He had already returned home, but his family—including his mother, wife, daughter, and nephew—was being driven to the crossing when the storm caused the heavy hoarding to crash onto their car.

Witnessing the accident, bystanders rushed to the scene and pulled all five occupants out of the vehicle. By a stroke of luck, a section of the hoarding got entangled in overhead wires, preventing it from crashing down with full force; otherwise, a major tragedy could have occurred. He has demanded that the Municipal Corporation remove such weak and precarious hoardings. Traffic police present at the crossing summoned a crane to have the hoarding removed.

Separately, on the Raibha-Achhnera Road, the second-story wall of a house under construction collapsed suddenly. The owner, Dharm Singh, was having the house built, though work had been halted for the past five days.

Power Outage in Villages Linked to 30 Substations

The storm disrupted power supplies in the city—specifically in Shastripuram, Gwalior Road, and near Mahtab Bagh—after trees fell onto power lines. Torrent Power teams worked late into the night to carry out repairs in these three areas. In rural areas, power supply to hundreds of villages connected to 30 substations was cut off immediately as the storm struck. Repair work continued late into the night.

Power supply was disrupted across 25 villages served by the Ladukheda electricity substation. Two electricity poles snapped and fell due to the storm in Majra Uttu, a hamlet of Daudpur village in the Sikri area. Power outages also occurred in areas such as Jaitpur, Bhadrauli, Jarar, Abhaypura, Basauni, Pathakpura, and Naugawan in the Bah region. Villagers have demanded that officials from Dakshinanchal install new poles.