Tuesday, 09 JULY 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Extremely heavy rain was reported in Banbasa and Champawat areas of Kumaon resulting in damage to dozens of homes and deaths of a number of cattle. The authorities had to shift hundreds of families from affected areas to safer locations due to the extremely heavy rain during the past 24 hours. According to the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) 431 millimetres of rain was reported in the Devipura area of Banbasa and 224 millimetres in Champawat. Meanwhile, 271 roads damaged by rain, landslide and other related factors are yet to be restored across the State.
Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami sought information about the situation from Kumaon commissioner Deepak Rawat who said that National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force teams had been deployed in vulnerable areas. Regarding the extremely heavy rain in Banbasa, he said that the NDRF and SDRF teams had undertaken a rescue operation to safely extricate people from flooded areas. Two rafts and 40 jawans of the army were also involved in the rescue operation. Rawat further informed the CM about the rescue and relief operations undertaken in other flood affected areas of Kumaon.
Meanwhile, according to the SEOC, a total of 1,273 roads have been affected by rain and related factors so far, out of which 1,002 have been restored while 271 are yet to be restored. In the Rudraprayag district, the national highway to Kedarnath is blocked by debris bear Fata while eight rural motor roads are also blocked in the district. Three rural motor roads are blocked in Uttarkashi district while one main district road and 17 rural motor roads are blocked in Bageshwar district. Six border roads and 19 rural motor roads are blocked in Pithoragarh district while the Khairna-Ranikhet-Ramnagar motor road along with one State highway and 13 rural motor roads are blocked in Almora district. Three State highways, three main district roads, one other district road and 25 rural motor roads are blocked in Nainital district while the Tanakpur- Champawat national highway, five State highways and 51 rural motor roads are blocked in the Champawat district. In the Chamoli district the national highway to Badrinath is blocked by debris at Ghursil while 18 rural motor roads are also blocked in the district. One State highway, one main district road and five rural motor roads are blocked in Pauri district while in the Tehri district the Rishikesh-Chamba-Dharasu- national highway is blocked by debris near Narendranagar bypass along with nine rural motor roads also blocked in the district.
