Rain, Thunder, Lightening, since late last evening brought the hill-state to a dripping halt. Predictions of the Met department came true as incessant rainfall lashed the hill-state including the State Capital, Dehradun.
In the district, close to Seemadwar’s Shastri Nagar four members of a family including two minor children died when a retaining wall collapsed on their home in the early hours of today morning. Two others injured in the incident were rushed for medical assistance to Doon Hospital where SSP, DM and senior officials visited them. There were also unconfirmed reports of two separate incidents in which two people were said to have been swept away in Rispana and Bindaal river which have been in-spate due to heavy rainfall in the upper reaches since late last night.
Numerous roadblocks, landslides plagued the roads connecting the district to its surrounding areas such as Dehradun-Mussoorie route was blocked at Kolukhet, Kincraig in Mussoorie, Yamntori-Mussoorie highway at Kadikhaal. There were long queues of vehicles lined up on either side as the administration worked on war-footing to clear up the roads within a short span of time.
There was also news of water logging in many areas of Dehradun, such as Dalanwala, Govindgarh Colony where homes were filled with close to six or seven feet of water. People were advised to move to higher grounds from these and other low lying areas.
Dehradun District Magistrate S.A. Murgeshan did announce ‘one day holiday’ for schools and anganbaadi’s at 7:00 a.m. in the morning, but by then it was already too late as most students had already reached their institutions safely.
According to the Met department there is heavy to very heavy rainfall in store over the next 48 hours in Kumaon and Garhwal region. The district administration, State Disaster Response Force and State machinery is leaving no stone unturned to deal with any eventuality which may arise. All systems in place were on high alert, with senior officials at district levels manning all stations personally.
