The death toll in the massive floods caused by the heavy monsoon showers in Himachal Pradesh went up to 20 following the recovery of six more bodies from the debris of a collapsed house in Kinnaur district on Thursday.
The double storied house belonging to Vinay Charas collapsed when the family was fast asleep slept on the intervening night of Sunday. In fact, the driving rain that lashed the state was particularly severe on the residents of Chaugaon village near the Hindustan-Tibet road.
Also, the rescue operations resumed in the state on Thursday after the two IAF choppers, which were grounded on Wednesday due to unavailability of fuel, were provided with fuel.
And some 165 tourists, who were stranded at Kinnaur,were winched out to safety following the resumption of the rescue operations. Local authorities intend to safely move out the remaining 400 people within the next 48 hours.
Meanwhile in nearby Haryana, the water-level in the swollen Yamuna is fast receding, with the situation in the state’s flood-affected areas limping to normalcy. Also, no rain has been reported from any part of the state in the past 24 hours from Wednesday to Thursday evening.
State Additional Chief Secretary-cum- Financial Commissioner, Revenue and Disaster Management, Krishna Mohan said that even in Palwal the situation was under control and no casaulties had been reported. However, the Army has been kept on stand-by to meet any eventuality there.
Even though the situation has improved somewhat, a few of the fields in the region remain inundated and the district administration is on high alert to prevent any loss of life.