Himachal Faces Continued Heavy Rains, Yellow Alert Issued For Isolated Areas

Rains continued to lash parts of Himachal on Tuesday and the local MeT office on Tuesday issued a 'yellow' alert predicting heavy rains, in isolated areas of the state.

The MeT warned of low to moderate flash flood risk in parts of Chamba, Kullu, Mandi, Shimla, and Sirmaur districts till Wednesday. It also cautioned of the possibility of damage to plantations, crops, vulnerable structures and kutcha houses.

Rains lashed several parts of the state since Monday evening. Baijnath received the highest rainfall of 110 mm followed by Mandi 103 mm, Naina Devi 70 mm, Seobagh 52 mm, Sundernagar 50.8 mm, Kangra 49 mm, Berthin 32.7 mm and Palampur 32.4 mm.

As per the state emergency operation centre, a total of 107 roads including 48 roads in Shimla, 24 each in Mandi and Kullu, seven in Kangra, two in Kinnaur, one each in Sirmaur and Una districts were closed for vehicular traffic in the state on Monday evening.

Himachal Pradesh's rainfall deficit since the onset of monsoon on June 27 till date stood at 21% till Friday with the state receiving 428.6 mm rain against an average of 543.6 mm.

Officials said 134 people were killed in rain-related incidents and the state suffered losses of about Rs 1,193 crore between June 27 and August 20.

Kukumseri in the tribal Lahaul & Spiti district was the coldest place in the state, recording a night temperature of 9.6 mm degrees Celsius while Bilaspur was hottest with a maximum temperature of 34.7 degrees Celsius.