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3 feared dead as flash flood, and cloudburst hit hill states
There was a flash flood in Laila rivulet at Badiyara village of Shimla district early on Saturday, which washed away an eatery next to the river and killed the family that ran the establishment, officials said
Shimla/Dehradun
Three people were feared dead after a flash flood in Shimla district, and another three were killed after a vehicle fell into a gorge in Bilaspur, as heavy rains, flash floods and a cloudburst ravaged parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on Saturday. In the town of Khaltu Nullah in Himachal Pradesh, cracks appeared in the middle of the road, forcing an evacuation of local residents.
There was a flash flood in the Laila rivulet at Badiyara village of Shimla district early on Saturday, which washed away an eatery next to the river and killed the family that ran the establishment, officials said. “There are reports that an elderly couple along with their grandson are missing after the flash flood in Laila rivulet. Rescue work is on and the damage to property is being assessed,” Shimla deputy commissioner Aditya Negi said.
The elderly couple, Roshan Lal and his wife Bhaga Devi, ran the dhaba, while their grandson Kartik had come to meet them.
There was panic in Khaltu Nullah town in Kotkhai tehsil of Solan when large cracks emerged in the middle of the bazaar road. The administration evacuated more than 2,500 residents and have disconnected power lines to the town to mitigate the risk of electrocution in the event of a potential landslide.
“The district administration should deploy a team of geologists and experts to examine the underlying cause of the cracks and devise an effective plan,” said local Bharatiya Janata Party leader Chetan Bragta.
In Bilaspur, three persons were killed after their car fell into a gorge early on Saturday. The accident took place in Dharkanshi, when the driver lost control due to the heavy rain. The three dead are residents of Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu held a meeting with a central team and appealed for assistance from the Centre. The state had suffered an estimated loss of ₹8,000 crore and the central government had released only ₹180 crore as flood relief, he said. “A revised financial assistance pattern should be adopted, taking into consideration the unique geographical challenges and the higher construction costs faced by hill states,” the chief minister said.
In neighbouring Uttarakhand, there was a cloudburst in Uttarkashi’s Purola that damaged shops and homes. “Due to a cloudburst overnight at Chhada Khadd, debris entered several houses and shops under ward numbers 3 and 4 of Purola nagar panchayat. Four pedestrian bridges were damaged. Power supply was also affected due to damage to electricity poles,” subdivisional magistrate Devanand Sharma said.
Around 150 students trapped in debris at Kasturba Gandhi Inter College at Barkot were rescued by the state disaster response force, spokesperson Lalita Negi said. At Dhauntri under Dunda tehsil on Uttarkashi-Lamgaon-Kedarnath highway, a safety wall of primary hospital caved in due to a landslide triggered by overnight rain, officials said.
Over 299 roads in Uttarakhand are blocked due to landslides and incidents triggered by rain. The state received 41.1 mm rainfall in the past 24 hours against a normal of 13.9 mm, according to the weather bureau. The Ban Ganga river breached its warning level of 230 metres and was flowing at 230.63 metres at Raisi in Haridwar at 8 am, while Gauri Ganga, with a water level of 987.58 metres, was flowing above the warning level of 987.25 metres at Munsiyari in Pithoragarh district.
