Two Uttarakhand women killed in rain-related incidents, timely escape for a family

Uttarakhand rains have triggered landslides and caused swelling of rivers and rivulets.

 

Dehradun/Haldwani(Agencies): At least two women were killed while a family of five was rescued from a car trapped in an overflowing rivulet in different rain-related incidents in Uttarakhand in the last 24 hours.

In one of the incidents, a 46-year-old woman was crushed under a tree, uprooted in heavy rains, on Thursday evening in Almora district.

Officials, said, the woman identified as one Vimla Negi was outside her home, when the tree fell on her while it rained heavily with an accompanying storm. She was rushed to the nearby hospital but was declared brought dead by doctors.

In another incident, the state disaster response force (SDRF) recovered the body of a 32-year-old woman buried under the debris brought down by a landslide on Friday afternoon in Pithoragarh district.

Praveen Alok, media in-charge, SDRF said, “The woman identified as one Bhagirathi Devi got buried under the debris of landslide on August 17 while she was going to a cowshed near her house to milk a cow. Since then, an SDRF team was involved in searching for her body which was found on the Friday afternoon.”

In another incident, five people including two children were rescued from a car which got trapped in an overflowing rivulet in Nainital district on Thursday afternoon. The incident came to light after a video of the trapped car with passengers inside, went viral on social media.

According to police, Kamal Singh, a resident of Bhikiyasain village in Almora district was going to Almora from Ramnagar in Nainital with his wife, sister-in-law and two children on Thursday afternoon. While on their way, they tried to cross the overflowing rivulet near Dhangarhi area when their vehicle got stuck in the heavy water flow.

The family was rescued when some passersby pulled them out of the car and a few minutes later, the car got washed away only to be pulled out after a few hours when the water level receded to some extent.

Meanwhile, the Dehradun centre of India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast light to moderate rainfall with some intense spells in many places in Dehradun, Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Pauri Garhwal, Nainital, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar districts on Friday and on Saturday. No weather-related warnings have been issued for Saturday and Sunday.