Pre-Monsoon showers wreck havoc in Uttarakhand

At least 30 houses were damaged and several cattle were killed in heavy rains, which wreaked havoc in Ghansali town of Tehri district on Saturday evening.

The rains also triggered landslides which blocked highways leading to Kedarnath and Yamunotri shrines.
The Uttarakhand capital also witnessed strong thunderstorm, which uprooted several trees and blew off billboards. Electricity supply was also disrupted in parts of the city as many poles and wires were damaged.
Meanwhile, in the Tehri district’s Bhaiswada area, the highway leading to Kedarnath Temple got blocked due to landslide caused by the rains.

The highway to Yamunotri shrine was also blocked along with Ghansali-Chamiyala road in Tehri. Several excavators have been pressed into service to clear the highways as the Char Dham yatra is in progress.

Sitakot and Kothiyana villages of Ghansali town, located 80km from district headquarters in Tehri, were the worst affected.

According to chief development officer (CDO) Ahmed Iqbal, “Around 5-10 houses were damaged in Sitakot while 15-20 houses were partially damaged in Kothiyana due to heavy rainfall.”

He also said that additional district magistrate (ADM) has rushed to the spot to take stock of the damage and four earth-movers have been deployed to clear the debris from the roads. “Public Works Department (PWD) superintendent engineer is also camping in the area to oversee the relief work,” he said.

Meanwhile, the families living in the damaged houses were evacuated by the district administration. Their temporary stay and food arrangements have been made at nearby schools.

The state capital Dehradun too witnessed thunderstorms late last evening with several areas grappling with power issues due to severed power lines.