At least one person died and another was missing after a flash flood triggered by heavy rain hit Tharali village in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand on Saturday morning, officials said.

Residents suggested a higher toll.

“At least six people are missing. Over 30 houses have been destroyed. The roads around the area are damaged, preventing communication with the outside world,” Ranjit Panwar, a villager, was quoted by the local media as saying.

“Some policemen and government officials arrived in the morning and took
some people to a shelter home somewhere.”

In Dehradun, state disaster management and rehabilitation secretary Vinod Kumar Suman spoke of one dead, one missing and “four-five injured”.

“According to primary reports, a woman died in Tharali because of excessive rain and flooding. One person is missing,” he said.

“Two houses were completely damaged but water and mud have entered 20-25 houses. Five-six vehicles are stuck in the mud and rubble.”

Suman said rescuers had reached the village.

“Over 10 routes leading to Tharali have been damaged, so we are facing problems reaching the village. We are unable to use helicopters because of poor weather,” he said.

“There are four-five injured but we can’t take them for medical treatment because we can’t take helicopters there. Some people have been shifted to the local tehsil office, where they have every facility.”

Tharali has been spared the scale of destruction witnessed in Dharali village of Uttarkashi district, where a cloudburst-triggered flash flood is feared to have killed more than 200 tourists and local people on August 5.

The government has yet to work out a rehabilitation plan for Dharali.

The national and state disaster response forces are still looking for bodies, some of which are feared to have been buried 10 to 20 metres under the ground.

Dharali market, with its 50-odd buildings that included hotels and homestays, took the brunt when water, mud and boulders came hurtling down the Srikantha Hill.

Tunri Gadhera, a stormwater drain in Tharali, overflowed around 1am and deposited debris in many buildings within the tehsil complex and nearby areas, PTI reported.

It quoted officials as saying a young woman died after getting buried under debris in a house. The subdivisional magistrate’s residence has been damaged, too.

According to the Chamoli district disaster management centre, the Karnaprayag-Gwaldam national highway connecting Tharali has been closed along with
the Tharali-Sagwara and Dungri motorways.

The rest house and office of the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam in Kulsari and the office of the Garhwal Mandal Development Corporation in Dewal village will be taken over and used temporarily for the tehsil office’s work and to set up relief camps, the agency report added.