Heavy rain paralyses life in Abbottabad

ABBOTTABAD: Heavy rain, which started in the wee hours of Monday, paralysed routine life in Abbottabad city.

The 70 percent area of the Abbottabad city, mostly the cantonment localities witnessed heavy flood that caused long queues of vehicles on main Karakoram Highway and link roads.

One to two feet of rainwater accumulated in Hassan Town, Bilal Town, Sir Syed Colony, Lambi Dheri, Thar Kana Chowk, Supply, Kala Pul, Stylo Street, Shah Zaman Colony, main PMA Road and even the Ayub Teaching Hospital was full of rainwater.

The heavy rain damaged the Ayub Bridge at Havelian, causing diversion of all the traffic on main KKH highway to the old bridge and long queues of vehicles were seen on the both sides of the road.

The power supply, which was suspended on Sunday night, was restored on Monday, resulting in acute water shortage in the city.

However, no loss of human life was reported. The deaths of animals was reported from different areas, including Shah Zaman Colony due to wall collapse. Sheep and goats were killed while eight vehicles, 14 motorbikes were damaged when the wall of a parking lot fell on them.

According to an elder Jamil Phapa, this happened for the first time in Abbottabad in his eighty years. He said 50 vehicles submerged in the rainwater.

The Rescue 1122 official rescued at least 62 stranded people and six patients were shifted to hospitals.

The shops and markets on main KKH especially at Supply, Mandian, Jhangi Seydan and other areas were hit badly by the rainwater, causing huge loss to the businessmen. Reports said that a number of houses were damaged in Havelian and its surrounding villages. Different roads in Tehsil Lora and Galliyat were also damaged due to land-sliding.

The house of one Raja Aurangzeb collapsed at Mohar Kalan village, however, no casualty was reported. The Abbottabad-Murree road was damaged at different places while heavy flood in river Harno destroyed a number of buildings including hotels. The small industrial estate area was submerged by the rainwater.