More than 15 people died and four went missing due to heavy rains in Uttarakhand since Wednesday evening as the Himalayan state witnessed two cloudbursts in the night. More than 1,500 tourists and pilgrims were rescued by the SDRF as normal public lives were paralised.

Cloudburst at Lincholi led to complete blockade of the Kedarnath pilgrimage route leaving more than 15,500 pilgrims stranded four kilometers away from the shrine.

State Emergency Operation Center (SEOC) informed that three members of a family, including a husband-wife duo, were perished under the debris of a hotel that crumbled down owing to the cloudburst at Jikhyani area of Ghansali block in Tehri while a woman in the Rohida area of the state’s summer capital Gairsain was buried under the muck and debris as a thick mass of the land fell on her house roof resulting into its collapse.

In another rain-inflicted incident six persons, including two children, 10-year old Aas Mohammad and 8-year old girl Nagma, died in Haridwar. Nagma, Aas Mohammad and two other were buried under the debris and eight family members were injured as their house collapsed in the Bahadrabad area of Roorkee in Haridwar.

In yet another incident in Haridwar two persons died of electrocution at Roorkee bus stand late Wednesday night amid heavy rains. Four persons, including two Delhi based tourists, died in Dehradun in the last 24 hours. Arjun Singh Rana, 55 years and 35-year old Sundar Singh died as they were swept away by a swelled monsoon rivulet in Dehradun late Wednesday night while two tourists from Sultanpuri in Delhi drowned in Sahastradhara water stream where they had gone for bathing with their third friend who was saved by the locals. The Ill fated Delhi tourists were swept away by the sudden rise in water level in the river they had gone for bathing on Thursday afternoon.

The rain havoc was witnessed in Kumaon as well. A 48-year old man at Dhari area died of being hit by a rock coming down from the hill top while two boys one in Haldwani an another in Bageshwar were swept in overflowing seasonal rivulets. The missing boys were yet to be found by the rescue teams deployed there. Apart from this two other missing persons were from Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts.

On the other hand, more than 1,500 kedarnath pilgrims were rescued by the SDRF as they were stranded since Wednesday night due to a cloudburst at Lincholi close to the shrine area. Cloudburst resulted in washing away almost 70 meters of the road near Bhimbali police post. “All the stranded pilgrims were safely taken to a nearby Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVM) building and Bhimbali police post in the night. As many as 425 pilgrims were airlifted on Thursday while rescue of the remaining pilgrims were in process” informed Rudraprayag district magistrate Ashutosh Gaharwar. More than 1100 tourists were rescued and shifted to the safer places through alternate routes created by the SDRF teams.

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the two cloudburst sites in Tehri and Rudraprayag on Thursday and directed officials to be alert according to the weather forecast and warnings issued by the meteorological department. Dhami conducted an aerial survey of the cloudburst area at Lincholi in order to understand the situation.

“State government stands fully behind the disaster affected people and will leave no stone unturned to provide all support to them. Safety of the people and their properties is the first priority of the state government. District administration and officers concerned must ensure adequate timely restoration of the broken roads, power and drinking water supplies” said Dhami.

Around 300 roads were still blocked in different parts of the state, impairing vehicular movements and routine public life especially in the hills.Routine public life large areas in the plains and Dehradun were marred by water logging and rain water gushes in the homes. Engineers and teams of the BRO and PWD, state police and other agencies were working hard to restore the road connectivity in the hills.