As the rain continues to pour, 34 people dead in J&K

In the midst of heavy rain on Wednesday, a large landslide slammed the Mata Vaishno Devi Yatra trail at Ardhkumari in Jammu and Kashmir’s Katra, killing at least 34 people and injuring numerous more. Fearing that additional people might still be trapped, rescue crews are currently searching the debris.

Jammu & Kashmir was devastated by the intense rain, which caused landslides and flash floods. Bridges collapsed, power lines and cell towers were seriously destroyed, and other vital infrastructure in Jammu was severely impacted. Following days of intense rain that caused flash floods and waterlogging throughout the district, over 3,500 households had to be evacuated until Tuesday.

Due to the bad weather, Jammu and Kashmir’s schools and institutions will not be open on Thursday, according to Education Minister Sakina Itoo. In the 24-hour period ending at 8:30 am on Wednesday, Jammu received 296.0 mm of rainfall, surpassing the previous record of 272.6 mm set on August 9, 1973. During the same time frame, Udhampur received an exceptional 629.4 mm of rainfall, over twice the previous 24-hour record of 342.0 mm set on July 31, 2019. Nine persons were killed and twenty-one injured in a landslide that struck the shrine route earlier Tuesday afternoon. The path was severely damaged by the mountainside’s violent collapse.

Authorities report that flash floods brought on by heavy rain have flooded 20 to 30 low-lying villages as well as multiple places in Jammu and Samba. At its control center, the government continued to receive emergency calls requesting help with evacuation. According to Soruces, the NDRF load, which includes relief and rescue supplies, will soon be transported by C130 and IL76 from Hindon to Jammu. Furthermore, all adjacent sites, including Jammu, Udhampur, Srinagar, and Pathankot, have helicopter assets like Chinook and Mi-17 V5 on active standby.

After being suspended for a day due to heavy rain, train operations from Jammu were resumed Wednesday afternoon. Due to poor weather conditions throughout the division, Northern Railways had earlier notified the cancellation of 22 trains that were scheduled to stop at or depart from the stations in Jammu and Katra. At other stations, like as Firozpur, Manda, Chak Rakhwalan, and Pathankot, 27 trains were also short-terminated.

On Wednesday, Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, questioned the preparedness for a disaster similar to the damage inflicted by Tuesday’s catastrophic flash floods in the Union Territory due to cloudbursts. Inquiring as to whether any lessons had been learned, he contrasted the current state of affairs with that following the 2014 floods.