Delhi woke up Thursday to a city flooded as rains refused to stall. The Yamuna, swollen beyond its banks, continued to swallow homes, roads, and relief shelters alike, while overnight showers brought down a flyover section and paralysed large parts of the capital.
Delhi Floods As Yamuna Crosses Danger Levels
Gonna be a long night for Gurgaon and whole Delhi NCR. #GurgaonRains #DelhiNCR #rain pic.twitter.com/6lvdKaTlfh
— Arvind (@arvindsiiingh) September 1, 2025
According to India Today, Delhi rains are becoming torrential and the Yamunariver had touched 207.47 metres by late Wednesday, and though the level stayed flat through the night, the damage was already done. In Mayur Vihar, families who had shifted into government-run relief camps were forced to scramble once again after the shelters themselves went under water.
North Delhi fared no better. In Alipur, a chunk of a flyover near NH-44 gave way, creating a gaping hole that sucked in a three-wheeler and injured its driver. At the Delhi Secretariat, the underpass leading to the Yamuna floodplains turned into a shallow lake, prompting road closures and frantic efforts by PWD crews with suction pumps.
Some of the city’s most recognisable landmarks vanished beneath brown, churning water. The Swaminarayan Temple appeared to float on an island, its new footover bridge to Ring Road completely submerged. At Nigambodh Ghat and Geeta Colony crematorium, floodwater halted cremations; families performed last rites on pavements, painting a grim image of the crisis.
Recently, a post shared on X by a Delhi resident went viral, as its caption captured the distressing emotion thousands of Delhiites currently face amid rains. “Gonna be a long night for Gurgaon and whole Delhi NCR,” it reads.
Also Read: IndiGo Shares Cheerful Advisory About Delhi Rains Affecting Flights; Netizens Not Amused
Delhi Rains: Most Affected Areas
Civil Lines, usually among Delhi’s most secure and affluent neighbourhoods, looked like an extension of the river itself. Five feet of water lapped at the doors of stately bungalows, and residents were stranded in traffic for hours in the Delhi rains.
Nitin Narain, a resident of the area, said that it took him over two hours just to crawl from Red Fort to Hanuman Mandir. He also mentioned that at Bela Road, people couldn’t even close their doors against the water, as stated by Hindustan Times.
With drains blocked by sandbags to stop the Yamuna’s backflow, heavy rain had nowhere to go. The result: knee-to-waist-deep water across arterial stretches from Kashmere Gate to ITO, snarling traffic for up to four hours. Police shut junction after junction, from the Old Iron Bridge and the Rajghat carriageway to parts of the Indraprastha Flyover, but each diversion only pushed the chaos elsewhere. At the Salimgarh bypass, drivers reversed or took the wrong side to escape the gridlock amid Delhi’s torrential rains.
Hundreds Distressed In Delhi Floods
On the city’s western edge, the Mungeshpur drain burst after a 50-foot embankment collapsed, flooding Najafgarh and Jharoda Kalan. Over 2,000 residents had to be evacuated overnight.
The India Meteorological Department, which had kept the city on red and orange alerts earlier in the week, eased its warning to yellow by Thursday morning. But with more rain in the forecast, the reprieve is more psychological than real. Delhi has already logged over 1,000 mm of rain this season, well above the annual average of 774 mm, usually reached only by late August, as stated by Hindustan Times.
One consolation is that the air cleared. The city’s AQI slipped to 57, putting Delhi briefly in the ‘satisfactory’ category, an irony not lost on commuters wading through waist-deep water along the Outer Ring Road.
Cover Image Courtesy: aravindsingh/X
For more such snackable content, interesting discoveries and the latest updates on food, travel and experiences in your city, download the Curly Tales App. Download HERE. First Published: September 04, 2025 1:06 PM