MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. Rescuers have evacuated about 200 people from flooded cars, a regular bus and a route taxi in several districts of Moscow as pouring rains are likely to set a new monthly precipitation record in the Russian capital on Monday.
According to reports by the Moscow branch of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, heavy rains and wind gusts in the Russian capital on Sunday night and Monday morning have sparked emergency situations across Moscow.
On Moscow’s south side, the rescuers evacuated about 80 people from flooded cars and also helped a regular bus drive out of the flooded road section," the local emergencies services division reported. "No one was hurt in the incident."
On the west side of the Russian capital, the rescuers evacuated drivers and passengers of three cars, which had driven into the heavily flooded section on Ochakovskoye highway.
On the Leningradskoye highway, a major Moscow thoroughfare, a fallen tree smashed a parked car and ruptured street light cables.
In the Lyubertsy district, to the east of Moscow, about 800 private homes have been flooded.
Moscow subway unaffected by downpour
A flooded section of the Filyovskaya light blue line in the west Moscow has not affected operations, the Moscow subway’s press office stated.
"Indeed, water has concentrated on the tracks between the Pionerskaya and Filyovsky Park stations due to downpour, but it has not disrupted the line’s operation. All trains are running on schedule," the press office said.
"One should not forget that most stations on the Filyovskaya line run along open-cut sections and may be slightly flooded in case of strong rainfall," the press office said.
The Moscow subway’s technical services have been put on a heightened work regime, the press service said.
Moscow’s morning rush hour extended by an hour
Heavy rains complicated traffic on Moscow’s streets on Monday morning and increased the rush hour time by about 1 hour, the web portal Yandex, Traffic Jams reported.
"Up until now, there have been huge traffic jams at entry points to Moscow. Right now, the longest traffic jam can be observed for this time of the day during the entire week on the Leningradskoye highway, from the Yelino to Mezhdunarodnoye highway, with a traffic jam of 11.1-km long," the web portal reported.
The web portal’s analysts expect the situation to complicate again by Monday evening.
Social network users are reporting numerous instances of flooded Moscow streets and posting videos and photos of cars with stalled engines.
Moscow braces for new monthly precipitation record
The rains that have been dousing Moscow for almost 24 hours may set a new record by the amount of precipitation, Russia’s Hydrometeorological Center reported.
Moscow has already set a new daily rainfall record for August 15. The previous one on that day was set in 1887 with 25.2 mm of rainfall, the Hydrometeorological Center reported.
"Overnight on August 15 alone, according to data of the weather station at VDNKh, Moscow registered 48 mm of precipitation (more than half of the monthly norm of 77 mm), which is higher than the daily precipitation record for the capital that had been kept since 1887 and amounted to 25.2 mm. So far, with the downpour continuing, the largest amount of daily rainfall in August stands at 59 mm. This occurred on August 13, 2003," the Hydrometeorological Service stated.
The exact amount of rainfall drenching Moscow on August 15, 2016 will be known by the evening. The largest amount of precipitation in the Moscow Region has been registered in Domodedovo, in the southeast of Moscow with 73 mm: 9 mm during the day and 64 mm at night, which is almost a monthly precipitation amount, Russia’s Hydrometeorological Service stressed.