Uttarakhand: “Natural disaster has struck Uttarakhand and our sensitivities are with affected people in uttarakhand Nearly 15,000 people remain stranded in Uttarakhand; the return of bad weather is impeding rescue operations. Helicopters have not been able to fly this morning, and landslides late on Sunday night have blocked major routes that were being used to evacuate people by foot.
The met department predicting of more rain in Uttarakhand on Monday, the rescue of thousands stuck in the flood hit regions unfortunately could be delaye,” MET dept director Anand Sharma said “Moderate rain showers predicted for Uttarakhand, there will be some opportunity for helicopter sorties.The weather department also predicted moderate rains till June 28 in some parts of Uttarakhand and the Air rescue operations have been temporarily suspended in Uttarakhand due to bad weather
So extensive is the damage that even a week after the devastating floods and landslides hit the state, there is still no clarity on the number of people missing or dead and Late in the evening, state’s disaster management and mitigation minister Yashpal Arya Uttarakhand denied reports that quoted him as saying that he feared the toll was nearly 5,000. “The enormity of disaster is so big that the toll could be more than the present figure. However, the picture is likely to be clearer in the coming days” he said.
The meteorological department has predicted moderate to heavy rain in the hills as well as foothills of the Himalayan state in the next 48 hours. Even moderate rain can hamper rescue as it may trigger more landslides.
Anand Sharma, director, meteorological department said “Rains on Tuesday are our main worry…if we get three to four hours of window tomorrow, we can do well,” Air Marshal SB Deo,
Director General (air operations), said reporters in the Capital on Sunday. So far, more than 80,000 people have been evacuated to safety.”Moderate to rather heavy rain and thundershowers are likely at many places with heavy rainfall at isolated places, especially in the foothills of Uttarakhand,”
Though skies turned grey, IAF choppers continued sorties to Dehradun’s Jolly Grant Airport to bring in those evacuated. But the weather took the turn for worse in the afternoon and air operations had to be suspended but for a few hours only. Subhash Kumar said to media, The Kedarnath valley has been completely evacuated, while more than 3,000 stranded people were moved to safer locations from Badrinath, Junglechatti and Harshil areas by the security forces, chief secretary.
Bureau report
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