Mustafa Chaphekar said he was at home when he suddenly felt "tremors", following which he ran out into the balcony of his flat and asked others what was happening.
Cyclone Nisarga slammed Maharashtra coast with wind speeds of up to 120 kmph, making landfall at 12.30 pm at Alibaug near Mumbai. The process was completed by 2.30 pm, a senior India Meteorological Department official said. Alibaug witnessed wind speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour. It weakened into a 'deep depression' late on Wednesday evening, the IMD said.
The orange alert implies that authorities should be ready to handle situations arising out of severe weather.
The depression will intensify into a deep depression --- the third and fourth stage of any cyclone formation --- by this evening. It will intensify into a cyclonic storm by June 2, the Cyclone Warning Division of the IMD said.
'The worst affected is the electricity supply. A huge number of poles, some 6,000 to 8,000 poles have been damaged completely. That will take a lot of time for restoration.'
Mumbai and its adjoining areas were lashed by heavy showers on Tuesday, causing water-logging at a number of places, including railway tracks, which slowed the movement of trains and vehicles on roads.
14 of 20 died due to drowning in different incidents that occurred during the immersion of Ganesh idols in parts of Maharashtra.
Speaking at a video conference to take a stock of damage caused by the cyclone in the coastal district which is adjacent to Mubai, Thackeray also directed that electricity supply be restored quickly.
"Cyclone Nisarga is likely to become a severe cyclone in the next 12 hours. It will continue to move for the next six hours in a northerly direction along the coast, after that it will re-curve as a cyclone and cross Raigad and Daman-Raigad," Aanand Sharma, deputy director, IMD told ANI.
The police sought the sessions court to quash the CJM order and grant them custody of the three accused.
Speaking to reporters, Naik's daughter Adnya and wife Akshata claimed they had sent applications seeking justice to the Prime Minister's Office and Raigad superintendent of police.
Death toll in the collapse reached 10 with recovery of nine bodies from the rubble on Tuesday, police said. A man died of cardiac arrest on Monday night after he was hit by a stone from the falling building, police said.
As per IMD classification, "heavy to very heavy rainfall" means precipitation ranging from 64.5 mm to 204.4 mm in a period of 24 hours.
A special court in Mumbai has said that Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut dealt with some "unaccounted money" for purchasing plots at Kihim near Alibag in Raigad district, but the same cannot be "thrown in the stock of proceeds of crime (POC) under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)".
'There was a slight change of direction towards north-eastwards which meant the impact of the cyclone on Mumbai was less severe than originally expected,' the IMD said in a statement.
Labour union leader Shrirang Barge said the state government would have known Dharmadhikari has a massive following and that the event would have attracted several lakh people, so why were arrangements for water, shade etc, missing.
On Monday, Maharashtra reported 15,140 new coronavirus cases, 7,304 less than the day before, and 39 fatalities due to the infection, according to the state health department.
Cyclone 'Nisarga' is very likely to intensify into a 'severe cyclonic storm' over the next 12 hours and cross Maharashtra and South Gujarat coast on Wednesday, an India Meteorological Department official said on Tuesday.
The Union minister was arrested on Tuesday afternoon from Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district following his remarks made during his 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' in Raigad on Monday that he would have slapped Chief Minister Thackeray for what he claimed as the latter's ignorance of the year of India's independence.
'To essay Chhatrapati Shivaji is a huge responsibility. I can't tell you how great and proud I feel.'
Gale-force winds, heavy rainfall and high tidal waves swept the coastal belts of Maharashtra and Goa as Cyclone Tauktae hurtled northwards towards Gujarat.
Six years and nine months after she was arrested for allegedly murdering her daughter Sheena Bora, former media executive Indrani Mukerjea walked out of the prison.
Over the weekend, many companies stepped in to ease the bottleneck in supply and transportation of oxygen, as demand ran high with the surge in cases.
A court at Mahad in Maharashtra, while granting bail to Union Minister Narayan Rane, said his arrest over his controversial remarks against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was "justified", but his custodial interrogation was not necessary.
Rediff readers shared these photographs of India from their travels.
With the cyclone set to make landfall on Wednesday, Maharashtra and Gujarat activated their disaster response mechanism, deploying NDRF teams and evacuating people from areas likely to be hit.
The court allowed Raut's plea for home food and medicines, but refused to pass an order on his prayer for bedding.
Town planning authority MMRDA on Tuesday said that nearly 150 patients at its COVID facility in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) have been shifted to another location as a precaution in the wake of the Nisarga Cyclone which is expected to make a landfall close to the city on Wednesday.
The newly expanded Maharashtra council of ministers has several leaders from political families.
The bus was carrying 34 staff members of an agriculture university in the Konkan region. It fell into a 500-feet deep gorge at Ambenali Ghat near Poladpur town, District Collector Vijay Suryawanshi said.
The government is also considering if those who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus can be allowed to travel by local trains in Mumbai, he said.
The Sena said Uddhav's comparison with Indira Gandhi was a matter of pride.
On Wednesday night, Goswami was taken for medical examination at a state-run hospital in the coastal town, the official said. After the medical exam, he was taken to Alibaug Nagar Parishad School, which is designated as a COVID-19 centre of the Alibaug prison, and he spent the night there, the official said.
So far, 50 people have also been injured in these incidents, the government said in a statement.
The high court on Wednesday directed the authorities to shift 80-year-old poet from jail to Nanavati Hospital for 15 days, noting that Rao was almost on his deathbed.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut routed his unaccounted money through various shell companies opened in the name of his family members and associates, his former aide and prime witness in the money laundering case linked to the redevelopment of Patra 'chawl' project told the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik said they will pass the order at the earliest, without giving any date.
The police, fire brigade, teams of the National Disaster Response Force and local trekkers were making efforts to pull out all bodies from the accident spot, a senior police official said.
The Maratha community should get reservation, but it should be done without disturbing the existing quota of other communities, the senior Nationalist Congress Party leader said.
Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, arrested in connection with the alleged suicide of an interior designer, was on Sunday shifted from Alibaug to Taloja jail in Maharashtra's Raigad district, the police said.
