Shimla, August 23 (Press Ki Taquat)
Tuesday night seemed too long for Shimla residents as they witnessed heavy downpour all night and woke up to the sound of lightning and zero visibility at many places.
Meteorological office here had issued a red alert predicting “heavy to very heavy” rain with isolated spells of “extremely heavy” rain in eight of its 12 districts during the night.
The red alert was issued in the evening for Shimla, Solan, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kullu, Mandi, Sirmaur and Una districts as rain on Tuesday triggered some landslides in Mandi and Hamirpur districts and uprooted trees in other areas.
So far, about 80 people died in rain-related incidents, including major landslides in Shimla. As many as 227 people have died in rain-related disasters in Himachal while 38 are still missing since the onset of monsoon on June 24. Over 12,000 houses have been completely or partially damaged, according to the state emergency operation centre.
