Himachal Rain Havoc: Seven districts on Flood alert, houses damaged and vehicles buried

Flashfloods and landslides triggered by heavy rains wreaked havoc in Himachal Pradesh's Chamba district on Tuesday, July 28. The floods have damaged more than 25 residential houses and a shop, and buried over a dozen vehicles including cars, trucks and two-wheelers under debris near Bhariad on the Udaipur-Golthi-Navodaya road.

Since the monsoon's onset on June 30, landslides and flashfloods have claimed 15 lives across Himachal Pradesh.

The Shimla Meteorological Centre has flagged a moderate flash flood risk over the next 24 hours in seven districts: Chamba, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan.

The State Emergency Operation Centre reported 178 roads shut across the state due to landslides and flooding where Mandi worst hit with 58 closures, followed by Kullu (42), Chamba (30), Sirmaur (26), Shimla (16), Lahaul-Spiti (3), Kangra (2) and Una (1). At least 107 water supply schemes and 62 electrical transformers have also been knocked out.

Shimla could face days of water disruption after a transformer failure at the Satluj Water Supply Project, compounded by silt and flooding at other sources, the Shimla Jal Prabandhan Nigam Limited said.

Streams and drains in Chamba are overflowing after incessant rain since early Tuesday, sweeping debris into nearby homes.

The weather office has sounded an orange alert for heavy to very heavy rain in isolated areas over the next two days and again on August 3 — covering Sirmaur on Wednesday, and Bilaspur, Chamba, Kangra and Sirmaur on Thursday. Meteorologist Sandeep Kumar Sharma said rainfall would peak between July 29 and 31, with widespread light-to-moderate rain and pockets of very heavy downpour.

Monsoon activity was already intense through Tuesday evening, with moderate to heavy rain across most of the state, including Shimla, and thunderstorms lashing Sundernagar, Kangra, Jot and Murari Devi.

(With inputs from PTI)