By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 25 Jul: Despite several red and orange alerts issued by the State Weather Centre in Dehradun, it did not rain on Monday and Tuesday in the state capital, which led to the mercury touching 37 degrees Celsius, yesterday, but the rain brought much relief when it started raining since morning today. It rained intermittently throughout the day today. It was after seven years that Dehradun registered temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius in the month of July. It was a very humid day in Dehradun, yesterday.
Moderate to heavy rains are likely tomorrow, too, in Dehradun and elsewhere in Uttarakhand. Meanwhile, according to the reports coming from across the state, many major roads were blocked due to landslides. In Uttarkashi city, this morning, stones started falling from the Varunavat Parvat, forcing road blockage in the city. One hotel roof was damaged due to the stones falling. The Yamunotri and Gangotri Highways were also blocked due to landslides at Dabarkot and Chugi-Barethi, respectively, both in district Uttarkashi.
The Kedarnath Highway was also blocked near Siri in district Rudraprayag and near Gaurikund beyond Tilwara also in district Rudraprayag this morning. On the other hand, the Badrinath Highway, which was blocked yesterday, was re-opened today after several hours of hard work by the workers deployed for the job. Meanwhile, 10 link roads were blocked this morning at Kapkot in district Bageshwar. In Tyuni, lightning struck a house destroying it this morning, while several houses were reported to be submerged in mud due to excessive rains in Kotiyara village of Ghansali Block, district Tehri. Relief could not reach the village till filing of this report.
