Heavy rain threatens to derail rescue mission in Uttarkashi

Early morning rain and a ‘yellow’ weather alert on Monday threatened to slow rescue efforts in flood-hit Dharali village, where 49 people remain missing nearly a week after flash floods and mudslides buried half the settlement.

Uttarkashi: Early morning rain on Monday threatened to hamper the ongoing search and rescue operations in the flash floods-hit Dharali village, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issuing a 'yellow' alert for all districts of Uttarakhand.

In some areas, rescuers manually dug through the derbis, even as hopes of finding survivors dimmed -- almost a week after raging waters and mudslides buried almost half the village, officials said.

The district administration has confirmed four deaths in the tragedy, the recovery of two bodies and that 49 people are missing since the disaster.

A vital bailey bridge near Gangnani connecting the flood-hit areas around Dharali has been built and made partially operational.

The Gangotri National Highway is still blocked or breached at several points. Clearing of debris is underway on a war footing and it is likely to be fully operational by Tuesday or Wednesday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami told reporters in Dehradun.

The highway remains blocked at Songad, Dabrani and Harsil.

The IMD has issued a 'yellow' alert, warning of rain across Uttarakhand during the day.

It has also issued a 'red' alert for heavy to very heavy rain over the next few hours in Almora, Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital, Pauri and Udham Singh Nagar districts.

It has been raining heavily in Dehradun since morning. Uttarkashi was also lashed by rain.

An Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) official in Dharali said the force is manually digging through the debris where a hotel stood before the disaster hit.

"A hotel stood here. There was movement of people in front of it when the disaster struck. The debris here is being dug manually with the help of radar equipment as people might be buried here," he said.

Uttarkashi District Magistrate Prashant Arya, who has been stationed in the affected area, visited Harsil in the morning to review efforts being made to reduce the water levels of a lake formed in the wake of the flash floods, which also caused extensive damage to an Army camp in the area.

Nine Army personnel from the camp, including one junior commissioned officer, and eight jawans are also among those missing since the tragedy.