Jammu Tawi, July 27: Heavy rains since last night lashed out in Jammu and brought the city to a halt today with floods, traffic jams, overflowing drains and power outage. What is believed to be the highest rainfall of this year with 157 mm at 0830 Hrs has reportedly claimed three lives with two girls washed away in a wave of flash flood in Janipur, Jammu and a woman at Chingus in Rajouri due to house collapse. Several areas in and around Jammu city have been submerged as authorities sounded a flood alert in river Tawi, Chenab, Ujh and Basantar as these streams have been touching their respective danger marks.
Today 1030 hrs, Two girls namely Menakshi, Age 9 Yrs (student of 4th class of Blue Bird School), D/o Rudi Ram, R/o Janipur and Sakshi Sharma, age about 7 Yrs, D/o Romesh Chander, R/o Janipur got washed away due to flash floods.
Both dead bodies were moved out to the mortuary of GMC Jammu. A relief of Rs four lakh ex-gratia each has been announced for families of the deceased.
Severe damages to the public and private properties were reported in several areas in and adjoining the city. Many areas of the city including the Government Medical College Hospital faced power outage from two to 13 hours with men and machinery of the PDD deployed to restored the power.
According to the Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Mr. Simrandeep Sinhg, a flood alert in river Tawi has been sounded adding that the water level in the river at Udhampur is above danger level and it is likely to swell in Jammu later in the evening. Tawi has reached upto 14 feet, the danger mark at about 5.30 pm and later receded in the late evening. The mighty Chenab flowed at 28.5 feet at about 7 pm and continued till the last report came in.
Dy Com said that entire staff of Flood and Irrigation Control Department has been alerted to take on any adverse situation.
Meanwhile, heavy traffic snarls were witnessed at Canal Road-Jewel chowk and Akhnoor Road-Bakshinagar, Narwal and many other low lying areas and it took hours for the authorities to streamline the traffic. Parents had a hard day as many school buses were stranded in the traffic jam at various places.
The Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Simrandeep Singh said, “this is the highest rainfall recorded in this year yet with magnitude of 157 mm this morning in Jammu. The district administration has set up an Emergency Control Room at Deputy Commissioner Office at Jammu with telephone numbers 2571912, 2520542 for help.
Landslides triggered by heavy rains forced the closure of 300-km long Jammu-Srinagar national highway, the only surface link between Kashmir and rest of the country. Heavy rains also lashed many parts of Kashmir Valley as Srinagar gauged 24.3 mm rainfall and Pahalgam 19.6 mm
Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Nirmal Singh today expressed grief over the death of two children who were washed away in the flash floods at Janipura which lashed the Jammu district today.
Sympathizing with the families of the children, he said that the Govt. would explore the ways and means of providing necessary assistance and help to them. He also directed the officers to prepare a detailed report about the damages to the infrastructure due to incessant rains which lashed Jammu and its adjoining areas.
