IMD predicts extremely heavy rainfall in six districts of Uttarakhand till Aug 14

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday warned of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in some districts of Uttarakhand till August 14. The weather department has issued 'red' and 'orange' alerts in most of the districts. "Isolated extremely heavy rainfall also likely over Uttarakhand during 10th-13th August," the department said.

The IMD has issued a 'red' alert for Dehradun, Tehri Garhwal, and Pauri Garhwal, and an 'orange' alert has been issued for Nainital, Champawat, and Udham Singh Nagar for Friday. For Saturday and Sunday, a 'red' alert has been issued for six districts - Dehradun, Tehri Garhwal, Pauri Garhwal, Nainital, Champawat, and Udham Singh Nagar. Haridwar is also expected to receive heavy rainfall on Saturday, while a yellow alert has been issued for the rest of the districts.

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The IMD has also issued a yellow alert for several districts of Himachal Pradesh for the next four days. Among the districts expected to receive moderate to heavy rainfall are Chamba, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Hamirpur, Mandi, Una, Bilaspur, Solan, Shimla, and Sirmaur.

Heavy rainfall has lashed Uttarakhand in the last two days. On Wednesday, a man was swept away with the rubble of a landslide that hit his house followed by heavy rains in Pauri. Heavy rains also damaged several bridges and blocked a national highway at over a dozen places.

Kotdwar recorded 269 mm of rainfall followed by Yamkeshwar which recorded 89 mm of rainfall. The approach road to a suspension bridge that connects Kotdwar with Ratanpur and Lalpani was washed away by incessant rains, affecting a large population of the area who will have to traverse an additional distance of 7-8 km to reach Ratanpur and Lalpani.

The NH 534 which connects Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh with Kotdwar was blocked at over a dozen places between Kotdwar and Satpuli on Tuesday night leaving nearly a hundred vehicles, including buses, stranded. "We have been trying to reopen the highway for the past twelve hours but continuous rain is hampering our efforts," NHAI's Additional Assistant Engineer Arvind Joshi told PTI

Besides Himachal and Uttarakhand, the IMD has also predicted rainfall for several other states. In the eastern region, widespread to isolated heavy rainfall is very likely over northern parts of Bihar, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, and Sikkim. Isolated very heavy rainfall is likely over northern parts of Bihar till August 13, and over Sikkim on August 11 and 12. The IMD has also predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura during the next 4 days.