Nearly two weeks after torrential rains, flash floods and landslides wrecked havoc and caused widespread destruction in Uttarakhand, the met department has issued a fresh warning that heavy rains are likely to hit Uttarakhand towards the end of this week.
Although, the magnitude of the rains will not be similar to the rainfall on June 16, it can still hamper the state government’s effort to bring back normalcy in the flood-hit state.
The New Delhi based regional meteorological centre has predicted that rain, ranging from 70-130mm a day, will hit parts of Uttarakhand from July 4-7. This volume is lower than the over 300mm that fell on June 16-17 but it is expected to hamper relief activities.
Meanwhile, a United Nations (UN) agency has estimated that the number of missing could be over 11,000 in Uttarakhand.
“According to data available till Sunday, 1,350 have been evacuated from Badrinath-800 by air and 550 by road. But there are some locals too like shopkeepers and ashram dwellers who also are being evacuated,” National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Vice Chairman M Shashidhar Reddy told reporters in Delhi on Monday.
A total of 1,350 people have been evacuated from Badrinath while over 3,500 remain untraced in flood-hit Uttarakhand, the agency said.
The number of dead stands at 580 while the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has rescued 8,634 people from Kedarnath taking the overall evacuation to 1,08,253 people, Reddy said.
“According to the quantum of FIRs filed, the number of missing stands at 3,500-3,700 but a report prepared by a UN agency along with some NGO pegs the figure in excess of 11 thousand,” Reddy said.
He added that the maximum deaths have reportedly occurred in the Kedarnath and Rambada areas while the number of injured registered so far has risen to 3,119.
“Though the excavators which were supposed to be airlifted yesterday in special Mi-26 helicopters could not be taken due to bad weather, about 385 heavy machines and bulldozers are locally in operation cutting through the debris,” Reddy said.
However one “heavy team” with all equipment to assist the state administration are in Guptkashi from where “they will be airlifted to Kedarnath” to search for dead bodies near the shrine.
Another team is in Joshimath from where they will proceed to Badrinath.
–PTI