India News ---Rain, Flood Havoc In Uttarakhand.

Water level rises at Tehri; UP, Uttarakhand on alert

Divya Iyer , CNN-IBN 
Posted on Sep 21, 2010 at 09:27 | Updated Sep 21, 2010 at 10:36

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New Delhi: Rising water levels in the Tehri dam continue to put the states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh at risk. More than 60 people have died in cloudbursts and landslides triggered by heavy rains in Almora and Naintial since Saturday.

Fortunately, no deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours. But hundreds have fled their homes as water rushed in. The Army has been spearheading rescue operations and 8000 people have been evacuated to safer places.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is arriving shortly at the Jolly Grant airport near Dehradun by 9.30 am for an aerial survey of the flood affected districts in the state.

This comes after state CM Ramesh Pokhriyal went on an aerial survey of Tehri, Haridwar, Nainital and Almora on Monday to assess the situation. He's announced relief of one lakh rupees to families of those who lost their lives.

Unprecedented rains, cloudbursts and a raging river have brought a spectre of flood and disaster for the people of Uttarakhand. "We haven't seen so much water in the last two decades," said a resident.

Ironically, Haridwar, the temple town faced the brunt of God's fury. While the holy site of har ki pauri is safe for now, the low lying areas and villages on the banks of Ganga are facing the worst crisis in the last few decades.


Relief and rescue operations are on a war footing - three columns of army have been deployed, supported by ITDP, NDRS personnel. Even Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokriyal flew down to Haridwar to take stock of the situation.

"We are concentrating on relief and rescue," said Pokhriyal. Schools remained shut, ambulances made their way through in knee-deep water to help affected people, even rail and road services have been disrupted.

However, despite the misery, there's a silver lining - the met department's forecast that the worst is over even though the Tehri dam is flowing 11 metres above danger mark.

The national Capital too is bracing for a flood like situation once again after Haryana released over seven lakh cusecs of water into Yamuna. Water levels have risen to 206.13 metres which is 1.5 metre above the danger mark.

The flood threat also looms over 80 villages between Yamunanagar and Gurgaon. The Yamunanagar-Saharanpur National Highway-73 has completely been submerged, the Centre has deployed the National Disaster and Rescue Force to deal with the situation.

(IBN live)