The hill-district of Uttarakashi bore the brunt of incessant rainfall on the night of 17th of August which led to its sub-mountain rivulets in spate sweeping away homes, shops, buildings and anything that came in its way.
Uttarakhand CM, TS Rawat put the total of those feared dead at 20 further stating that 12 bodies had been recovered thus far. People from NDRF, SDRF and Forest Department are engaged in rescue operation. The road head has been washed away at 21 points and priority would be to repair them soon.
Villages of Aarkot, Makudi, Kashtha in Mori Tehsil witnessed incessant rainfall over the past two days which left a trail of disaster in the region. Secretary (Incharge) Disaster Management, S A Murugesan had put the toll of those dead at 17 yesterday, “There has been no rainfall since late evening, no new landslides, water level is receding and there is no pertinent danger as of now. Priority now is to reach villages, restore road connectivity along with the two valley bridges which were swept away. Restore electricity and start vehicular movement as soon as possible.” Further adding, “we are sending our rescue team on foot as well as para-drop them by chopper. We are in constant touch with locals and our officials on ground. We have organised a base camp at Arakot Intermediate School where the SSP and DM have set up base, along with medical and relief camp.“
Since yesterday morning, choppers from Dehradun Jollygrant and Sahastradhara helipad carried communication equipment & ropes for rescue operations in the region. Three medical teams have also reached Arakot, which is assisting in rescue operations. Senior State officials, Finance Secretary Amit Negi, Inspector General (IG) Sanjay Gunjyal & Uttarkashi District Magistrate (DM) Ashish Chauhan were already on site taking stock of the situation. So far, thirteen villages have been affected by the heavy downpour and the district administration is working on war-footing to ensure that there are no more casualties, “we have established our control centre in Arakot and there are three choppers which will carry out aerial sortees. SDRF teams have also been air-dropped and some are afoot on trek routes. PWD teams and JCV are working to repair road stretches which were swept away. Food and medical assistance is being provided here and we are working on returning to normalcy as soon as possible,” said DM Dr. Ashish Chauhan.
Chief Minister of the State Trivendra Singh Rawat tweeted about rescue and relief work being carried out in Mori Tehsil. While six injured have been airlifted from Arakot thus far, two persons were brought to Dehradun from the Sahastradhara helipad, where they were shifted to the Emergency Wing at Doon Hospital which has been prepared to take-up more patients from Mori. Four other’s were referred to higher centre, while more injured were brought to the State Capital as the day progressed.
Yesterday morning a release from the State Disaster Relief Fund stated, “our team moved at 5:00 a.m. for Arakot along with Paramedics and medicines left with the team. A temporary Mess that can run as a bhandara, has been moved to Aarakot. Facilities to tent 400 people in emergency, besides 200 food packets have been moved to affected area. 150 helidrop-kits are ready to move from Jollygrant and another 50 from Sahastradhara helipad. Yesterday some disaster relief kits were distributed by SDRF teams that reached the spot.”
