Heavy rains hit most areas of Jammu and Kashmir during the night, leading to flood-like conditions in many low-lying regions and damaging a key bridge on the Jammu-Pathankot national highway, according to officials.
Jammu, which is the winter capital, got 190.4 mm of rain in the last 24 hours up to 8:30 am. This is the second highest rainfall recorded in the month and it's the highest in a century. The most rain ever recorded in August was 228.6 mm, which happened on August 5, 1926. The next highest amount was 189.6 mm, measured on August 11, 2022.
Authorities have already warned people to keep away from water areas and places where landslides might happen. This is because the weather is expected to bring moderate to heavy rain, which could lead to cloudbursts, sudden floods, and landslides in higher areas until August 27. A traffic department official said that the 250-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway and the 434-km Srinagar-Leh national highway are open for vehicles even though there has been heavy rain.
However, the Mughal road between Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu, which connects to Shopian in south Kashmir, and the Sinthan road linking Kishtwar and Doda districts in Jammu with Anantnag in south Kashmir, are closed because of landslides in several places. A bridge close to Logate Morh on the Jammu-Pathankot highway got damaged in the middle because the Sahar Khad nallah overflowed after heavy rains in Kathua district, officials said.
They also mentioned that traffic on the highway was redirected through another bridge. Normal life in Jammu city was affected due to heavy rain, which caused streams and drains to overflow. This led to roads being flooded and floodwater entering homes in several areas like Janipur, Roop Nagar, Talab Tilloo, Jewel Chowk, New Plot, and Sanjay Nagar. Officials said that the boundary walls of many houses were also damaged, and almost a dozen vehicles were carried away by the sudden floods.
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Officials reported that water levels in several major rivers and streams, such as Basantar in Samba, Ujh and Ravi in Kathua, Chenab in Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban and Jammu, and Tawi in Udhampur and Jammu, increased significantly. Because of this, the authorities have alerted disaster response teams and local police.
So far, there are no reports of people being hurt right away, but the rains have caused landslides in several areas of Rajouri and Poonch in the Jammu region, as well as in Gurez in north Kashmir, according to officials. In the Jammu region, Udhampur received the second highest rainfall of 144.2 mm.
Katra, which is the base camp for pilgrims going to the Vaishno Devi shrine in Reasi district, got 115 mm. Samba had 109.0 mm, and Kathua received 90.2 mm. Officials said that the summer capital, Srinagar, received 13.5 mm of rainfall.
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