Everything happened quite suddenly and rather quickly for more than 300 residents of Juhu Ruia Park in Moragaon when BMC officials reached the housing society on Wednesday morning and announced that they would be temporarily shifted to a safer place, as the colony was just 200 metres from the beach. They were made to board BEST mini buses and taken to the nearby Ritambhara College where arrangements had been made.

Aniket, a 21-year-old resident of the Andheri West society, said the civic body and the police jointly conducted the evacuation. "The officials arrived around 10 am and informed the people whose homes were close to the beach to pack all their important stuff as they would be shifted to a nearby college," he said, adding, "By 11.40 am, people were put into buses and taken away. A lot of the younger crowd, and those whose homes were a little farther away from the beach, and therefore, did not need to be evacuated, drove the others to the college in their vehicles. The authorities told the residents that the area was at high risk because of its proximity to the beach."