Rains in plains, snow in hills

Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 10: As the rains continued to lash Kashmir since Sunday, the higher reaches of the Valley including the famous tourist destinations including Pahalgam, Gulmarg and Sonamarg received a fresh snowfall today.
The higher reaches, including Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonamarg received few inches of fresh snowfall today.
Traffic was suspended on Srinagar-Leh highway following fresh snowfall at Zojila and Sonamarg in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district today.
The health resort of Sonamarg received around two inches snow while rains lashed the other areas of the district.
The 434-km Srinagar-Leh highway was temporarily closed today due to fresh snowfall at Zojila pass. “Traffic was temporarily suspended on the highway after fresh snow caused slippery conditions and slides at few places,” said a senior Traffic Police official. However, the highway was re-opened for traffic later.
The Mughal road was also closed in the morning for traffic due to slippery road condition caused by the light snowfall. However, the road was re-opened for traffic in the afternoon.
A Meteorological official said that the light to moderate rains would continue to occur at many places during the next 48 hours in the State.
The intermittent rains continued to lash Valley since Sunday afternoon. A MeT official said that the wet weather across the Valley would continue till April 12 under the influence of a Western Disturbance (WD), which is active in the region.
The rains that continued since Sunday afternoon caused water logging at several places in Old City areas including Khanyar, Baba Demb and others, resulting in immense hardships to the pedestrians.
Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) put its men and machinery on task to dewater the water logged areas in different parts of Srinagar city. Besides sucker machines and mobile pumps the sanitation staff was also pressed into service.
Dewatering exercise was carried out in inundated areas which included Hari Singh High Street, Lal Chowk, Batamaloo, Bemina, Qamarwari, Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Mehjoor Nagar, Hyderpora, Gogji Bagh and Chhanpora.
And lightning damaged three residential houses and a Primary school in Uri in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district today. Lighting struck Ghati village of Uri and damaged one primary school building and three houses. The affected families have been identified as Moze Ali Shah son of Mir Ali Shah, Sakhawat Hussain his brother Manzoor Hussain son of Syed Hussain of Khala Gahti Uri.
In the meantime, Divisional Administration Kashmir today issued an avalanche warning for next 24-hours for hilly and avalanche prone areas of Kashmir valley and Ladakh region.
“Avalanche warning valid for next 24-hours from April 10 to April 11, 2018 (1700 hrs) exists for avalanche prone slopes in Bandipora, Baramulla, Kupwara, Ganderbal, Anantnag, Kulgam, Budgam, Leh, Kargil districts of Kashmir Division and Srinagar-Jammu National Highway” a statement of the divisional administration said.
“All concerned Deputy Commissioners have been asked to take precautionary measures in their respective districts and advise people not to venture in avalanche prone areas during the aforementioned period and monitor the situation regularly to avert any untoward incident”, the statement added.

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