By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
A day after the disaster struck the hills of Tharali in Uttarakhand, the rescue and relief works were continuing on war-footing with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami flying to the affected areas to take stock of the situation on Sunday.
Nearly 150-200 people have been evacuated from the affected areas, an official statement said.
After a series of cloudbursts in the western Himalayas, flash floods carrying huge boulders and debris struck the Tharali area in Chamoli district shortly after midnight on Saturday.
One person was dead and another went missing in their sleep as floods and debris from Toonari stream, a tributary of Pindar river, created havoc damaging over 41 houses including 11 completely and some market areas in Tharali. Eleven vehicles were also damaged.
The body of a 20-year-old girl Kavita Bisht, who was studying in Dehradun, has been recovered by the rescue teams from her home was swept away by the floods. She couldn’t escape the wrath of disaster but her parents survived.
The rescuers were trying to find the other missing old man.
Six persons who were seriously injured in the disaster were shifted to AIIMS Rishikesh for better medical care.
Rescue operations by the Army, ITBP, SDRF, NDRF, police aided by other local agencies were in full swing.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami flew to Tharali to take stock of the situation in the disaster affected areas. He also met the affected people.
Meanwhile, relief and rescue operations are being carried out on a war footing in Tharali market and surrounding areas. On the instructions of the Chief Minister, various teams of district administration, local police, SDRF, NDRF, Army, SSB, ITBP are engaged in relief and rescue operations.
The Chief Minister has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased. For the fully damaged houses, the compensation will be Rs 5 lakh.
In the past two months, a series of disasters mostly due to cloudbursts and incessant rains have triggered flash floods in Jammu, Himachal and Uttarakhand leaving a big trail of death and destruction. In most of the disasters, small streams turned monstrous destroying everything that came in their way. Scientists were also closely studying these disasters to suggest long term measures to the governments.
Significantly, the destruction mainly occurred in the floodplains of these streams where structures like hotels and houses mushroomed in the past one decade.
