Srinagar : The water level in River Jhelum on Thursday crossed the ‘flood declaration’ mark at Ram Munshi Bagh in the city, prompting authorities to set up emergency control rooms and directed the staff marked for flood duty to report to their beats, reports PTI.
“Due to continuous rains, the gauge at Ram Munshi Bagh has crossed the flood declaration level of 18-feet. The habitation along the embankments of River Jhelum and in low lying areas of Central Kashmir are advised to remain vigilant,” an official of the Irrigation and Flood Control department said. The water level at Sangam, in south Kashmir Anantnag district, was at 20.30 feet at 7.00 pm, just 0.70 feet below the flood declaration level, he said.
According to MeT department officials, Srinagar received 83.9 mm rain and snowfall over the past 24 hours while Kokernag in south Kashmir received 69.9 mm of rains in the corresponding period.
The incessant rains have forced closure of the arterial Jammu-Srinagar national highway as the downpour has triggered landslides and shooting stones at several places along the 300-km road. Air traffic to and from Srinagar International Airport was also affected due to weather conditions as 10 flights were cancelled while most of the other flights were delayed.
Meanwhile, two out of the five army soldiers buried under an avalanche in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir were rescued while three were still missing, officials said. The Udhampur headquartered northern command said: “Unprecedented snowfall triggers multiple avalanches, a post in Batalik sector buried, two out of five rescued, rescue operation in progress”.
