Monsoon Havoc In Himachal: 5 Dead, 16 Missing In Mandi; Over 400 Roads Closed

Cloudbursts and flash floods triggered by heavy overnight rains battered Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district, leaving five people dead, five injured and 16 missing, officials said on Tuesday.

The state witnessed 11 cloudburst incidents, four flash floods and a major landslide on Tuesday, most of them in Mandi district, disrupting normal life.

Mandi received extensively high rainfall of 253.8 mm since Monday evening.

The MeT office has issued an 'orange' warning for heavy to very heavy rains, thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places in three districts of Kangra, Solan and Sirmaur on Wednesday, and four districts of Una, Hamirpur, Kangra and Mandi on Saturday.

A total of 406 roads are closed in the state following rains, out of which 248 are in Mandi district alone where 994 transformers have also been disrupted, according to the state emergency operation centre (SEOC).

Twenty four houses, 12 cattle sheds, one bridge and several roads have been damaged, 30 cattle perished and efforts are on to rescue nine stranded people in Mandi district, the officials said.

A total of 332 people, including 278 in Mandi, 51 in Hamirpur and three in Chamba, have been rescued, the SEOC said.

In Mandi district, cloudbursts were reported in four places in Gohar, three in Karsog, two in Dharampur and one place in Thunag.

Two deaths were reported in Bada and one in Talwara, both in Gohar area, one in old Bazaar in Karsog while one body was recovered at Neri-Kotla in Jogindernagar.

Deputy Commissioner, Mandi, Apoorv Devgan said that several people have been rescued and shifted to safe places as cloudbursts and flash floods following heavy rains caused extensive damage at some places in the district.

Two teams each of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) along with police and home guards are engaged in search and rescue operations in the district.

All the rivers and streams in the district are in full spate and over 1.5 lakh cusecs of water has been released from the Pandoh Dam over Beas river.

The water was released after the water level of Pandoh Dam reached 2,922 feet against the danger mark of 2,941 feet.

The Chandigarh-Manali four-lane road is currently blocked at multiple locations, including nine miles, Dwada, Jhalogi, and Banala while the route via Kamand-Kataula-Bajaura is open for Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) only. Commuters are facing inconvenience due to traffic issues at several places.

So far, Himachal Pradesh has suffered losses to the tune of Rs 500 crore since the onset of monsoon season on June 20, said Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu while talking to reporters in Hamirpur.

There has been an increase in cloudburst incidents in the last two-three years, which is worrying and the reason behind this is being reviewed, he said and appealed to the people not to go to the river banks and drains.

Meanwhile, 51 people, including 30 labourers, stranded in Ballah village in Hamirpur district were also rescued following a sudden surge in the Beas river inundated low-lying areas of Ballah early in the day after water was released from Pandoh Dam.

Reports of damage to 'kutcha' houses, water pipeline and power cables are also coming in from Hamirpur district and people are forced to move on foot as the road from Sujanpur Tira to Sandhol on the left bank of Beas is partially submerged and blocked for vehicular traffic.

In the wake of heavy rains, the district administrations of Mandi and Hamirpur closed schools on Tuesday. However, some students had already reached schools as information to this effect was not delivered on time in Hamirpur district, said locals.

The weather department has warned of low to moderate flash-flood risk in parts of six districts of Chamba, Hamirpur, Mandi, Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan in the next 24 hours.

The Met office issued a 'yellow' alert for heavy rains in most parts of the hill state till July 5.

In view of heavy rains, the office of Director General of Police issued special directives to the district police to provide immediate relief to stranded people and evacuate them, remain on high alert, ensure safety of relief camps, regulate traffic and monitor rumours on social media.

Meanwhile, Union minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said a robust weather forecast system is in place but predicting the magnitude of a cloudburst is still difficult.

The number of automatic weather stations is being increased to improve accuracy and soon area-specific weather predictions would be provided, the science and technology minister told reporters here. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)