Thathri, a town in Doda district, coincidentally suffered a cloudburst in the same month today as occurred in 2017. The 2017 Thathri cloudburst, which took six lives and damaged various houses, vehicles, and a school building in July 2017, was one of the worst disasters in this town. Similar horror was seen in the eyes of flood affected victims today in Thathri. However, today’s cloudburst fortunately didn’t take any life but damaged roads, vehicles, and the debris entered into various houses in the town on Saturday early morning at around 03:00 am.
Mohd Din alias MD, a UP-based businessman who was running a furnishing and decor business in Thathri, faced a huge loss as all of his products, including blankets, pillows, mats, and more, were destroyed during the midnight flood due to cloudburst. When I woke up and stepped out of bed, I was half drowned in water, due to which I was shocked and thought that I and my family were in the river Chenab, but when I saw there was debris in the water, I tried to open the door but failed and rescued my family through a window,” MD explains the first moment when he got to know that his business unit was half drowned in water.
Even I, the writer of this story, was an eyewitness there when the floods hit the streets of the town. Around 2:45 a.m., my friend Abid Hussain, who lives in the upper reaches of Thathri, called to tell me that the water level was rising and could pose a threat to the R.P. Gate area.At 2:50 am, I woke up to check the weather outside and saw my street was filled with water and debris. I went outside and checked the highway. I saw the National Highway was flooding like a river and people were not able to cross it due to huge water pressure. I went to R.P Gate and saw the bridge was blocked by the boulders and debris and the flood was turning towards the market area through the national highway on one side, and on the other side, the flood water was entering the Army Camp area. It was around 3:30 am when I informed the police about this incident. There were 5–6 vehicles dumped inside the debris. I met a police official when he visited the spot, and we contacted an army official to ask about the inside situation. The army officer said that the armymen are safe and the flood, along with debris, has entered the camp.
At around 7:00am, one-way traffic was restored and various district level officials visited flood-effected areas and allotted the men and machinery to clear the roads.
Ifham Jigar, reporting on education for The Chenab Times, tweeted a collage on Twitter which shows the coincidence of the July 2017 Cloudburst and the July 2022 Cloudburst.
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Anzer Ayoob is the Founder and Chief Editor to The Chenab Times
