Wednesday's dawn deluge came with a fearsome burst of thunder and lightning that left 11 people dead nine of them in the city and on the outskirts, and two elsewhere in the state. Met officials weren't the only ones left red-faced. Civic officials huffed and puffed all day, trying to crank up drainage pumps, but failed woefully. When the city's millions tried to get to work, they found themselves knee-deep or even waistdeep in swirling, murky water.

The sultry summer forgotten, it was time to talk about choked drains and flooded roads. First day, first show and, the city ground to a halt. At Keshtopur market, traders were opening their businesses when a bolt of lightning crashed through, killing three and leaving several wounded. Three others were electrocuted in the city when the rain tore down live wires. Three more were killed by lightning on the outskirts.

At least 40% of buses stayed off the road, cars stalled, two dozen local trains were cancelled, nearly all flights were delayed, hospitals were flooded and shops stayed closed. Even the Nandigram hearing had to be put off as Calcutta High Court was swamped. And, all the anger was directed at the Met department. ``Why can't they give us the facts properly? Till Tuesday, they went on saying that monsoon was still some days away. They had no inkling it would rain so hard and leave the city inundated,'' fumed Deepika Ghosh, whose home in the Alipore Bodyguard Lines was completely swamped.

The first hour of the downpour broke a 26-year-old record. Between 7 am and 8 am, the city received 110 mm rain and 22.6 mm thereafter. The Met department did confirm that it was ``very heavy rainfall''. ``Whenever the reading is 130 mm we consider it very heavy, so indeed the city has received very heavy rainfall on the first day of the monsoon,'' said deputy director of meteorology, R L Meena. ``Except Purulia, the entire state is now under monsoon cover,'' said G C Debnath, director of the Alipore met office. Thursday's forecast is for very heavy showers.