5 Killed in Cloudbursts in Uttarakhand, a Chunk of Manali Washed Away, Punjab Submerged

Torrential rain and cloudbursts wreaked havoc across northern and western India on Friday, killing at least five people and leaving 11 missing in Uttarakhand, inundating large parts of Punjab, sweeping away swathes of Manali town in Himachal Pradesh, and shutting down the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway for a fourth consecutive day, while Maharashtra's Latur and Nanded districts sought army assistance for rescue operations after relentless downpour crippled normal life.

- MPOST BUREAU

In Punjab's Patiala, the district administration issued an alert for several low-lying villages near the Ghaggar River following heavy rain in its catchment area. The flooding in the Ferozepur district still persists with nearly 16,000 acres of crops inundated and 62 villages severely hit. In Maharashtra, heavy downpour sent life out of gear in Latur and Nanded districts, leading to shutting of schools and a request to the army to launch rescue operations. Several landslides triggered by cloudbursts in Uttarakhand swept houses and buried many under mounds of rubble.

Chamoli, Rudraprayag. Tehri and Bageshwar districts bore most of the brunt of the natural calamity, which came close on the heels of the Tharali disaster on August 23.

On August 5, a devastating flash flood in the Kheer Ganga River in Uttarkashi district flattened nearly half of Dharali - a key stopover en route to Gangotri.