Rains in plains and snowfall in higher reaches started on Sunday afternoon and continued for the fourth running day today.
Heavy rains continued to lash the valley of Kashmir, resulting in inundated roads and even damage to some houses and bridges. However, the weather is expected to improve from Wednesday afternoon.
The Valley’s life has been thrown out of whack by the continuous rain for the past 48 hours, despite officials from the Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department claiming that there is no chance of flooding because the gauges are well below the warning level.
“The current gauge reading at Ram Munshi Bagh is 12 feet, and if it reaches 14 feet, flood spill channels will open, lowering the water level in Jhelum, and the gauge level in all water bodies is below normal,” an official from the Irrigation and Flood Control department said.
On the other hand, the local Meteorological department (MeT) forecast that there is possibility of improvement in the weather from this afternoon and no major weather activity will be there until March 31.
“Even as scattered to fairly widespread light to moderate rain, thundershowers and snow has been forecast over Jammu and Kashmir in next 24 hours, the weather is going to be mainly dry from Thursday till March 31,” the MeT officials maintained.
Rains in plains and snowfall in higher reaches started on Sunday afternoon and continued for the fourth running day today.
According to the MeT, Srinagar received 30.9 mm of fresh rainfall during the last 24 hours and recorded a temperature as low as 4.6°C while Qazigund received 47.2 mm of fresh rainfall during the last 24 hours and recorded a temperature as low as 4.0 °C.
Gulmarg also received 25.4 mm of fresh rainfall and also received 15 cm fresh snowfall and recorded a temperature as low as 2.5°C.
Srinagar-Jammu Highway also remained closed today due to landslides and shooting stones at many places on the highway.
However, flash floods damaged many residential houses and some bridges in the Himalayan valley.
A bridge over Nallah Mawer at Batgung village in the Handwara area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district was damaged due to flash floods triggered by the incessant rains from the last four days.
A portion of the bridge, constructed some 25 years ago, has been damaged, leading to halt in the traffic over it.
In central Kashmir’s Budgam district, a house and a shop were damaged due to the incessant rainfall. An old mud-house, belonging to Abdul Hameed Bhat son of Ghulam Ahmad Bhat, was completely damaged at Waterhail Budgam. There was no injury or loss of life reported in the incident.
A readymade shop was also damaged in the Budgam district. Reports also said that rainwater also seeped into several houses at Ganai Mohalla in Devas Pora Magam Handwara as well as in some villages of Lolab and Qawardi in Kupwara district.
In Srinagar city, Amar Singh College has turned into a pool following the heavy downpour, with students and faculty finding it hard to reach their respective classrooms.
A number of students said that they had to wade through the water to reach their classrooms. “Authorities need to dewater it, so that students and faculty could at least reach the classrooms without difficulties,” they said.
