CHANDIGARH: Even as rescuers raced against time to trace 45 people missing since late Wednesday’s heavy rains in three districts of Himachal Pradesh, the death toll from flashfloods trigged by cloudbursts rose to eight with the recovery of three more bodies on Friday, sources said.
As many as 33 stranded people have been rescued from the Malana-II power project site in Manikaran area of Kullu district. According to the state emergency operation centre, 103 houses have been completely or partially damaged in Kullu, Mandi and Shimla districts. Six motorable and 32 footbridges, shops, school buildings and vehicles are heavily damaged in the past 36 hours.
In many places in interior areas, people stayed awake all night atop hillocks to stay safe amid fears of heavy rains.
Kullu deputy commissioner Torul S Raveesh said the government primary and secondary schools have been damaged and arrangements were being made to run the schools from safer locations.
Shimla superintendent of police Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi said, “We have to search a 100-km area. Drones are being used to locate the missing people.’’
The maximum damage was caused at Samej area of the Rampur subdivision of Shimla district as a cloudburst near the Shrikhand Mahadev route on Wednesday night triggered flashfloods.
The State Emergency Operation Centre said 73 people have died in rain-related incidents since the onset of monsoon on June 27. The government has suffered losses of `649 crore.
CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu visited Samej and reviewed the ongoing relief and rehabilitation efforts. “Each affected family will receive `50,000 as immediate assistance and `5,000 per month, for three months, for hiring rented accommodation from today itself,” he said. The government would provide free ration, cooking gas and stoves.