Monsoon Fury in U’khand: One Person Swept Away in Landslide, Heavy Rains Alert Issued for 4 Districts – News18

Heavy rains on Wednesday continued to wreak havoc in Uttarakhand as a man was swept away with the rubble of a landslide that hit his house followed by heavy rains in the Pauri district, while the Kalsi-Tuni motorway got completely disrupted due to the incessant downpour in the Malwa district. Several people got stuck in traffic jams near Jajred as a massive landslide hit the state highway that connects the Jaunsar-Bawar valley.

Amidst the monsoon fury in the state, a weather forecast department issued an orange alert on Thursday for Chamoli, Bageshwar, Nainital, and Champawat districts. Schools in Bageshwar and Chamoli are to remain closed as 225 roads, including two national highways and 13 state highways, have been shut.

It has been raining continuously in Kotdwar since Tuesday evening, disrupting normal life in its wake. Water and muck have gushed into homes in Jhula Basti, Gadighat, Kashirampur Talla, Malla, Kodia Camp Basti, Aam Parao Basti and other areas under Kotdwar municipality, destroying property worth lakhs of rupees, the disaster control room was qupted as saying by news agency PTI.

The landslide occurred late on Tuesday night at Choona Maheda village, demolishing the house of Rahmat Ali who was swept away in the rubble. A search operation is underway to trace him, the disaster control room said.

Kotdwar recorded 269 mm of rainfall followed by Yamkeshwar which recorded 89 mm of rainfall, it said.

The approach road to a suspension bridge which connects Kotdwar with Ratanpur and Lalpani was washed away by incessant rains, affecting a large population of the area who will have to traverse an additional distance of 7-8 km to reach Ratanpur and Lalpani, it said.

Several other small bridges in the town were also damaged, it said. NH 534 which connects Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh with Kotdwar was blocked at over a dozen places between Kotdwar and Satpuli on Tuesday night leaving nearly a hundred vehicles, including buses, stranded. People had to spend the night in their vehicles.

“We have been trying to reopen the highway for the past twelve hours but continuous rain is hampering our efforts. However, we hope it will be reopened after a couple of hours,” NHAI’s Additional Assistant Engineer Arvind Joshi told PTI.

(with inputs from PTI)