• Over 60 dead as rain wreaks havoc in Himachal, Uttarakhand; houses collapse in Shimla, Joshimath

    National
    Over 60 dead as rain wreaks havoc in Himachal, Uttarakhand; houses collapse in Shimla, Joshimath
    The weather office has forecast sporadic but heavy rainfall throughout Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh over the next four days.


    Digital Desk: In Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where houses collapsed often, constant rains and landslides killed 66 people. Rescue operations for the injured and body recovery from the debris are underway.

    60 people have died in Himachal Pradesh since the severe rains started on August 13; the majority of the fatalities, according to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, occurred there.

    The weather office has forecast sporadic but heavy rainfall throughout Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh over the next four days.

    60 DEAD AND 3 BODY RECOVERED IN HIMACHAL
    Rescuers pulled three dead from the ruins on Tuesday as a result of landslides. Two individuals perished in a recent landslip in Shimla, while one body was recovered from the rubble of a fallen Shiva temple in the city.

    A landslip in Shimla's Krishnanagar neighbourhood resulted in at least eight buildings, including six temporary structures, collapsing and burying an abattoir beneath the debris.



    He added that a total of 19 bodies had been found since Monday, including 12 at the site of the collapsed Shiva temple in Summer Hill, five in Fagli, and two in Krishnanagar. He further stated that more than 10 persons are still thought to be trapped inside the Shiva temple.

    An edict from the education department stated that owing to bad weather, all state-run schools and colleges will be closed on Wednesday.

    Around six in the morning, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Army, the police and the SDRF commenced rescue efforts at Summer Hill, according to Shimla Deputy Commissioner Aditya Negi for news agency PTI.

    Following a significant downpour on Monday night, the rescue efforts were put on hold.

    On Tuesday, August 15, the weather office issued an orange notice, and a yellow alert was in effect for the following four days, till August 19.

    Meanwhile, due to the excessive rains, Himachal Pradesh University postponed classes till August 19. Till August 20, the university library will also be closed.

    However, a statement stated that both teaching and non-teaching personnel would continue to work at the university as usual.

    Tuesday's meeting to examine the state's current condition was presided over by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who stressed that the Himachal administration is completely committed to advancing restoration operations on a priority basis.

    According to an official statement, he also instructed officials to speedily restore water and energy delivery systems that have been impacted by the recent severe rain.

    The Chief Minister stated in a tweet sent out early on Wednesday that more than 800 residents of Kangra's low-lying villages had to be evacuated as the water level in Pong Dam surged.

    "More than 800 people were evacuated from the low-lying areas of Kangra near the Pong Dam, as their villages became inaccessible due to the elevated water level in the dam reservoir. Evacuation operation is still on as more people are being evacuated," he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    THE TOLL IN UTTARAKHAND RISE TO SIX

    In the nearby state of Uttarakhand, six people have now died as a result of rain-related incidents; seven more are unaccounted for. Ever since Monday, the state has witnessed heavy rain.

    The disaster management centre in Dehradun reported that a woman's body had been discovered after water from the swollen river Pawar invaded settlements in the Arakot area of the Uttarkashi district and she had gone missing. In the Lakshman Jhula district of Rishikesh, the body of Tejaswini, a 14-year-old girl, was also found in a stream fed by rain.

    The youngster, Tejaswini, vanished on Monday after the car she and her mother and brother were riding swept away by the roiling stream. They claimed to be locals of Rishikesh's Rani Mandir neighbourhood. The search for her mother and brother was in full swing.

    For the next four days, up till August 19, numerous locations in Uttarakhand are under a yellow alert. People have been advised not to go outside in places that have seen floods and landslides, even if the intensity of the rain may lessen with time.

    The Ganga at the Bhimgoda Barrage in Haridwar began to recede and was flowing at 292.65 metres, just a little below the 293-meter danger level.

    Officials said that a building collapsed on Tuesday at Helang near Joshimath in the subsidence-hit Chamoli district, resulting in the rescue of three persons and the fear of several more being buried under debris.

    Ravindra Negi, the district's additional information officer, stated that as members of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) worked to securely extract the other trapped individuals from the structure, those who had been rescued were sent to a hospital.

    Land subsidence caused damage to several homes in Joshimath earlier this year, and the issue has gotten worse with the start of the monsoon season.