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One more body recovered in Shimla’s flood-hit village, search ops continue
Shimla DC said the district administration has recovered 10 bodies so far, of which two have been identified and were cremated
As rescue and relief operations in the state’s flood-hit areas entered the seventh day, another body was recovered from Luhri village near Rampur in Shimla district on Wednesday.
Shimla deputy commissioner (DC) Anupam Kashyap said the district administration has recovered 10 bodies so far, of which two have been identified and were cremated on Wednesday. “The rescue operation is still underway,” he said.
A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescued four villagers on Wednesday from the Samej village. They were trapped in a riverbank nallah due to heavy rainfall. Also, an injured home guard was rescued during operations at Rasol Jot, Malana.
The rescue teams are using technical support, including canine and drones, for search operations.
The NRDF teams also recovered jewelry and other precious items from flood debris, which was handed over to the civil administration at Samej.
Around 40 people remain missing from Kullu’s Nirmand, Sainj and Malana, Mandi’s Padhar and Shimla’s Rampur subdivision, which were hit by a series of cloudbursts on the night of July 31. The search operations are underway at Sunni, Samej, Jhakri in Shimla and Padhar in Mandi. The worst hit Samej village, on the border of Shimla and Kullu district, where over 30 people are missing.
While 60 houses were fully damaged, 35 were partially damaged in the floods triggered by the torrential rain.
On Wednesday, heavy rain affected the rescue and relief in Samej, as the state’s various districts remained under an orange alert of heavy rainfall.
Search continues in Mandi
Meanwhile, the search operation to find the missing person in Terang village under Padhar sub division of Mandi district continued for the seventh day. Mandi deputy commissioner (DC) Apoorv Devgan said that the search for Hardev, 30, son of Bhagat Ram, who went missing in the Terang, is continuing.
“The debris from the cloudburst has been turned over once by a Poclain machine but no trace of the missing person has been found. Therefore, the scope of the search operation has been increased to find him. The help of sniffer dogs is also being taken. He said that 9 out of 10 people missing in this accident have been found,” he said.
Flash flood alert sounded
The IMD on Wednesday also issued a flash flood alert for Kangra, Chamba, Mandi, Kullu, Shimla, Sirmaur, Kinnaur and Solan districts. The weather office said surface run-off or inundation may occur in some fully saturated soils and low-lying areas due to expected rainfall occurrence in the next 24 hours.
Various districts of the state remained under an orange alert of heavy rainfall. The weather office in Shimla has predicted rainfall to continue in the coming days and has sounded a yellow alert on August 8 and 9, while an orange alert of heavy to very heavy rainfall has been issued for August 10.
In the last 24 hours, Jogindernagar (Mandi) received highest rainfall of 13 cm followed by Paonta (Sirmaur) with 12 cm and Karsog (Mandi) with 6 cm rainfall. 5 cm rainfall was recorded at Nagrota Surian (Kangra), Hmo Shillaro (Shimla) recorded 5 cm rainfall while Simla recorded 3 cm rainfall.
