New Delhi: In the early hours of Saturday, a cloudburst occurred in the Raipur block of Dehradun district in Uttrakhand. The incident was reported by the residents of Sarkhet village around 2:45 am after which the State Disaster Response Force or the SDRF rushed to the spot.
The SDRF team rescued the people stranded in the village, while the rest took shelter in a nearby resort, reported news agency ANI.
Due to incessant heavy rain, River Tamasa was in spate near Tapkeshwar Mahadev temple in Dehradun.
"Due to the continuous torrential rains since yesterday, the Tamasa river flowing near the famous Tapkeshwar Mahadev temple in Dehradun has taken a formidable form. Due to this, the contact between Mata Vaishno Devi Cave Yoga Temple and Tapkeshwar Mahadev has been lost, and the pool has also been damaged. By the grace of God, there has been no loss of life or property," Acharya Bipin Joshi, the founder of the temple told ANI.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed concern over the cloudburst incident and heavy rain in the state, and said he will try and reach the spot to take stock of the matter.
Commandant Manikant Mishra of SDRF Dehradun told ANI, "We've received reports of water entering various premises & damage to roads in many areas, SDRF & NDRF carrying out relief & rescue and restoration operations".
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Meanwhile, fairly widespread light to moderate showers with thunderstorms has been forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) over Uttarakhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh on August 19-20. A similar weather forecast has been issued for Himachal Pradesh and western Uttar Pradesh over the weekend.
Moderate spells of rain are also expected in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab on Saturday. Rajasthan can expect rain from August 20-22. While south Haryana will receive rain on Sunday, according to the IMD forecast.