Himachal Pradesh Rains LIVE: Over 60 Deaths This Week, Shimla, Mandi Worst-Hit; Schools Shut

“Rescue operations are underway at both places of Summer Hill and Krishna Nagar. So far, 13 bodies have been recovered from Shiv Temple in Summer Hill area, whereas one body and one severed head were found in Krishna Nagar,” says Deputy Commissioner Shimla Aditya Negi.

The Yamuna’s water level in Delhi followed a downward trend Wednesday morning after the river crossed the danger mark of 205.33 metres for a brief period on Tuesday following torrential rain in the river’s upper catchment areas over the past two days. According to the Central Water Commission’s (CWC) website, the water level at the Old Railway Bridge stood at 205.14 metres at 8 am on Wednesday.

It had crossed the warning mark of 204.5 metres at 3 pm on Tuesday and rapidly rose to 205.39 metres at 10 pm. “The river may not swell to the evacuation level of 206.00 metres in Delhi unless the hilly region receives more rain,” a CWC official said. Delhi recorded light rain on Wednesday and dry conditions are predicted over the next few days.

At least 56 people have been killed in Himachal Pradesh as rain wreaked havoc in the hill state since Sunday. Torrential rain also ravaged Uttarakhand over the past two days, destroying buildings and causing landslides that breached the national highways to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri shrines.

Rescue operation underway after several houses collapsed in a landslide in Krishnanagar locality in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla yesterday.

Water level in the Yamuna crossed the danger mark of 205.33 metre in Delhi earlier today following torrential rain in the river’s upper catchment areas over the past two days.

The flood situation in Assam deteriorated on Sunday affecting more than 75,000 people, an official bulletin said.

The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) report said the floods claimed a life in Sivasagar district. With this, the death toll in this year’s deluge has reached 12, an official said.

At least four major rivers were flowing above the danger level in the state, officials said, adding the Brahmaputra has breached the red mark in Dhubri and Nematighat, while the Disang was flowing above the danger level in Nanglamuraghat and Dikhou in Sivasagar.

“More than 800 people were evacuated from the low-lying areas of Kangra near the Pong Dam, as their villages became inaccessible due to the elevated water level in the dam reservoir. Evacuation operation is still on as more people are being evacuated,” posted  Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on ‘X’ (formally Twitter).

After a surplus of rainfall in most parts of India in July, the southwest monsoon has gone from “above normal” to “below normal” in just 15 days into August. The southwest monsoon was reportedly at 5 per cent higher than the long-period average (LPA) at the end of July.

However, as per the latest data, in just 15 days into August, the season’s total downpour fell to 5 per cent below LPA as 263 out of 717 Indian districts (around 36 per cent) received inadequate rainfall with deficits of 20 per cent or more, according to a report by Times of India. READ MORE

Widening cracks in subsidence-hit Joshimath during the monsoon prompted authorities to shift five families to relief camps.

Admitting that land-subsidence in areas declared unsafe earlier this year seems to have been aggravated during the monsoon, Chamoli’s Disaster Management Officer NK Joshi said five families were shifted from Sunil ward to relief camps two days ago.

In January, land subsidence around Joshimath led to hundreds of residents fleeing their homes, which had developed cracks, and taking refuge in hotels, rest houses and at homes of relatives and friends.

Three people were rescued and a few others are feared trapped under debris after a building collapsed on Tuesday at Helang near subsidence-hit Joshimath in Chamoli district, officials said.

Additional Information Officer of the district Ravindra Negi said those rescued were rushed to a hospital while State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel were trying to safely bring out the others trapped in the building.

Reportedly four people are feared trapped inside the building but it is yet to be confirmed by officials.

The flood situation in Assam improved considerably on Tuesday even though nearly 46,000 people are still reeling under the deluge across five districts, an official bulletin said.

According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), more than 45,700 people are hit due to the floods in Chirang, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh and Sivasagar districts.

Sivasagar is the worst hit with nearly 23,000 people suffering, followed by Dhemaji (20,500) and Chirang (1,500), it added.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday handed over compensation cheques to victims of the recent floods in Punjab, assuring the people that his government will compensate for the loss of every single penny.

Addressing a gathering during a state-level Independence Day function here, Mann said the compensation amount was decided after a special ‘girdawari (survey to assess losses)’.

The Punjab government is duty-bound to compensate the people following the recent floods, Mann said and added that there is no dearth of funds with his dispensation for this.

Officials carry out rescue operations to save people stranded due to bridge collapse in Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand.

Search operations in rain-ravaged areas of Uttarakhand led to the recovery of two more bodies taking the death toll in a series of rain-related incidents in the state since Monday to six while seven people are still missing.

The body of a woman, who went missing after water from a swollen Pawar river entered villages in Uttarkashi district’s Arakot area, was found on Tuesday while that of a 14-year-old girl, Tejaswini, was recovered from a rain-fed stream in the Lakshman Jhula area of Rishikesh, the disaster control room here said.

The girl went missing on Monday after a car in which she was travelling with her mother and brother was swept away by the swirling waters of the stream. They were residents of Rani Mandir area of Rishikesh, it said. Operations are underway to trace her mother and brother. Those trapped under the debris of a landslide that hit a resort ‘Night Paradise Camp’ in the Lakshman Jhula area on Monday have been identified, according to police.

Several villages near the Beas river in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district and the Sutlej river in Rupnagar district were inundated following the release of excess water from the Pong and the Bhakra dams, officials said on Tuesday.

Many villagers were evacuated to safety and the authorities are keeping an eye on the situation, they said.

In Gurdaspur, the district administration has also asked people living in low-lying areas and near the banks of the Beas to move to safer places. READ MORE

The Yamuna’s water level crossed the danger mark of 205.33 metres in Delhi on Tuesday following torrential rain in the river’s upper catchment areas over the past two days.

According to a Central Water Commission official, the water level at the Old Railway Bridge crossed the warning mark of 204.50 metres at 3 pm on Tuesday and rapidly rose to 205.39 metres at 10 pm.

“However, the river may not swell to the evacuation level of 206.00 metres in Delhi unless the hilly region receives more rain,” he said. READ MORE

Rescue teams comprising National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescued 25 people, including children, who were stranded at different places in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh due to the swollen Beas river, the disaster force said on Tuesday.

“A 14-member NDRF team conducted rescue operations in the Beas river near Mand Mayani village and successfully rescued 25 trapped people, including children, due to an increase in water level at two different sites,” the NDRF said.

A nearly 157 per cent surge in rainfall over the past few days has resulted in extensive damage across Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Tuesday.

The death toll due to the rain rose to 56 after one more body was pulled out of the rubble of a collapsed Shiva temple in Shimla while two people died in a fresh landslide in the city, officials said.

Sukhu chaired a meeting to review the prevailing situation in the state and emphasised that the Himachal government is fully committed to expediting restoration efforts on a priority basis. He also directed the officials to swiftly restore electricity and water supply schemes that have been affected by the torrential rain over the past few days, according to a statement issued here.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday said that isolated heavy rainfall is likely to continue in Himachal Pradesh in the next two days, and in Uttarakhand and northeast in the next 4-5 days.

The weather forecast agency, in the bulletin, further predicted that in Northwest India, there will be light to moderate scattered rainfall and thunderstorms, with isolated heavy rainfall expected over Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Additionally, Uttarakhand will experience this weather till Saturday.

As the monsoon continued to wreak havoc in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday issued a red alert (heavy to very heavy rainfall) for the next 24 hours in several parts of both hill states. Massive landslides, floods, and cloudbursts have resulted in extensive damage in the northern part of the country.

The weather body also predicted heavy rains in Jharkhand and West Bengal on August 16 and August 17. Heavy rainfall is also likely to occur in north-eastern states like Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Odisha, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands till August 17.

Himachal Pradesh is witnessing a series of tragic events triggered by incessant rains and thunderstorms that caused heavy loss of properties and mass evacuation. The IMD further said that the red alert will soon turn into an orange alert as weather conditions are likely to improve soon READ MORE

Two more bodies were pulled out of the rubble of a collapsed Shiv temple in Shimla on Tuesday and rescuers feared 10 more bodies are still trapped there as the death toll in the rain fury in Himachal Pradesh since Sunday night rose to 53, officials said.

The number of deaths in the twin landslide sites in Shimla’s Summer Hill and Fagli has risen to 16, they said.

Heavy rains battered Himachal Pradesh since Sunday, triggering landslides and cloudbursts that blocked several roads and led to house collapse incidents. READ MORE