Cloudburst leaves entire village near Rampur in mourning

Shimla, August 1

An old woman is staring at the roaring nullah full of massive boulders and debris. Her middle-aged son, looking equally lost and dejected, also has his gaze fixed on the nullah. The mother and the son are clearly unable to accept that two of their family members (his wife and daughter) have been swept away by the gushing waters and are hoping for a miracle.

Like these two heartbroken souls, there are several other stony-eyed people in Samej village on the border of Shimla district and Kullu district near Rampur, mourning their losses. This small village, located on either side of the nullah, was hit by flashfloods on Wednesday midnight following a cloudburst higher up in the hills.

Search to be carried out in 85-km area

• The rescue and search operation for 36 persons missing from Samej village, near Rampur, will be carried out over 85 km
• Personnel of the NDRF, SDRF, Army, CISF, ITBP, Police, Home Guards and the Fire Department are part of the rescue teams
• Anupam Kashyap, Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, and SP Sanjeev Gandhi monitored the rescue operation, which started at 5.30 am, throughout the day
• The rescue teams had to walk 2 km to reach the affected area due to the broken road
• The search operation will start tomorrow morning and continue till the sunset
• The rescue teams were engaged in search and rescue operations at different places

The flashfloods swept away 36 persons and around 25 houses in the village and nearby places down the stream, leaving the entire area in mourning. Someone has lost a wife in the floods, someone saw their children swept away, and a few lost their entire family.

“I was tossed around by the waters before I caught a wooden log and managed to come out of water. Unfortunately, my wife was swept away,” said Prem Chand (75).

People recall hearing a loud noise a little past midnight, followed by water in the nullah rising several metres high. “I woke up hearing a loud noise around midnight. I was shaken when I saw out of my window the water in the nullah had risen as high as the road. And then, I saw some houses on the other bank collapsing in gushing waters,” says Ashish. “I woke up my mother, and we rushed to safety,” he adds.

Along with the houses, a multi-storied building of a Primary Health Centre and a primary school building have been washed away. Lower down the stream, a hydro project has been wrecked by the big boulders that came with the water.

Several agencies have been pressed into the rescue and search operations. “The rescue operation is over, the focus is now on retrieval of the missing persons,” said Sanjeev Gandhi, SP, Shimla. Two bodies were recovered today, but are yet to be identified.