Mir Iqbal
TRAL, Aug 21: Cloudbursts struck Zoistan area of Tral town in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, causing heavy flashfloods that led to large scale destruction in the area, rendering scores of families homeless.
The floods also washed away two-kilometer long road connecting scores of villages of the area, Government High School building, CAPD building, electricity poles, water supplying pipes, vehicles and standing crops in the fields.
Locals said that the flow of water was so powerful that it carried with it huge boulders, stones and trees and even washed away a good portion of agriculture land.
The flood water also entered into over two dozen houses and some shops causing damage to the public property whereas, many families had to be shifted to the safer places as their houses and two Masjids were filled with mud and boulders.
“The water with boulders, wooden logs and mud was flowing with huge pace and it engulfed the area and devastated whole region within minutes,” locals said.
The local administration sounded alert and rushed its officers early in the morning to assess the situation in the area.
Locals said that during the night hours a cloudburst occurred some 3 kilometres away from Zuistan at a place where shepherds and Gujjar Bakarwal community take their cattle for grazing.
Eyewitnesses also said that they were lucky that the cloudburst outside the residential houses, thus no human loss took place.
Bilal Ahmed resident of the area said that there are apprehensions that dozens of cattle and sheep could have been washed away. “It is impossible to tell how much damage have been happened in the area, but as far as the intensity of the flashflood in concerned, it must have damaged the property in crores in the area,” he added.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Pulwama, Manzoor Ahmad Lone also confirmed that some houses, a school building, two-kilometer road stretch, electricity poles, water pipes were damaged in the area.
Lone said a team consisting of Additional Deputy Commissioner, Shah Faisal along with Tehsildar Tral and Station House Officer (SHO) visited the spot and took stock of the situation.
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