Heavy rainfall to continue in Himachal; orange alert issued for four districts

Himachal Pradesh is set to witness very heavy rainfall in isolated areas as the State’s Meteorological Department has issued an orange weather warning for Kangra, Mandi, Sirmaur and Kinnaur districts for September 3. A yellow weather warning has also been issued for Una and Bilaspur districts, resulting in few spells of heavy rainfall in isolated places of these districts during the next 24 hours.

As per the Meteorological Department, rainfall will continue to occur across the state till September 8, with few spells of heavy rainfall on September 3.

As many as 1,337 roads, including four National Highways (NH) are blocked for vehicular traffic as a result of heavy downpour that continues to wreak havoc across the state.

As per the State Emergency Operation Centre, as many as 282 including NH 03 are blocked in Mandi, 255 in Shimla, 239 in Chamba, 205 including NH 305 in Kullu, 140 including NH 707 in Sirmaur, 60 in Kangra, 49 in Lahaul and Spiti, 46 in Solan, 37 in Una, 13 in Bilaspur, eight including NH 05 in Kinnaur and four in Hamirpur district.

Also, about 2,180 distribution transformers including 443 in Sirmaur, 373 in Mandi, 323 in Kullu, 302 Shimla, 207 in Chamba, 191 in Solan, 129 in Hamirpur, 117 in Lahaul and Spiti, 63 in Una, 30 in Kinnaur and two in Kangra district also remain disrupted, affecting the electricity supply in many areas of the state.  Apart from this, as many as 777 water supply schemes including 272 in Shimla, 212 in Kangra, 100 in Chamba, 55 each in Mandi and Hamirpur, 39 in Kullu, 29 in Sirmour, 12 in Solan and three in Bilaspur district also remain disrupted.

Meanwhile, the state continued to receive extremely heavy rain in isolated areas along with very heavy to heavy rainfall during the last 24 hours. Naina Devi in Bilaspur received 198.2 mm rain — which was the highest in the state. Similarly, Rohru in Shimla district received 80 mm rain, Dharamsala 52.3 mm, Una 49 mm, Bhuntar 47.7 mm, Nahan 46.7 mm, Bilaspur 40.2 mm, Kasauli 40 mm, Paonta Sahib 37.2 mm, Mandi 36.2 mm, Keylong 30 mm, Sundernagar 28.7 mm, Kangra 26 mm, Solan 25.8 mm, Palampur 24.2 mm, Kufri 24 mm, Shimla 20.6 mm, Chamba 17 mm and Kalpa 7.4 mm.