Cloudburst in Himachal buries several vehicles under debris.
Officials report ₹4,465-crore loss.
Shimla: In the quiet hours of Saturday morning, residents of Gutrahan village in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur district woke to a terrifying sound—water rushing with unstoppable force. Within moments, a cloudburst had struck the Namhol area in the Naina Devi assembly constituency, unleashing torrents of water and debris that tore through farmland and buried several vehicles under mounds of mud and rock.
Remarkably, no lives were lost. For villagers, this was a small blessing amid the devastation that now lay before them. Agricultural lands, the lifeline for families in the area, were left scarred and strewn with debris. “The gushing waters swept away fields we depend on,” said Kashmir Singh, a local resident, his voice heavy with the shock of what had unfolded. “We have seen rains before, but nothing like this.”
In Shimla, the state capital, another challenge awaited residents. A dense blanket of fog rolled in on Saturday morning, reducing visibility to just a few metres. Parents struggled to get children to school, with vehicles inching forward cautiously through the white haze. What would have been an ordinary commute turned into an anxious journey for many.
The cloudburst added to the already mounting toll of this year’s monsoon in Himachal Pradesh. The local meteorological office has issued a yellow warning for heavy rainfall in isolated areas through the weekend, urging residents to remain alert. The advisory is another reminder that nature’s fury is far from over.
Behind the scenes, officials are grappling with the scale of the damage. According to the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC), 953 power transformers and 336 water supply schemes have been disrupted across the state due to floods and landslides. For countless families, this has meant living without electricity or clean water for days at a stretch, compounding the hardship.
The human cost of the season has been staggering. Since the onset of the monsoon on June 20, Himachal Pradesh has reported 386 deaths linked to rain-related incidents and road accidents. Of these, 218 people lost their lives to landslides, flash floods, and other rain-induced tragedies, while another 168 died in accidents on the state’s winding, rain-slicked roads. Each number represents a family plunged into grief, a community left mourning.
The financial losses are equally devastating. Officials estimate the state has already suffered damages worth ₹4,465 crore. Homes have been swept away, roads torn apart, and vital infrastructure crippled. Rebuilding will take years and require resources the state is struggling to marshal.
Meteorological data paints a sobering picture: from June 1 to September 12, Himachal Pradesh recorded 967.2 mm of rainfall—43 percent above the normal average of 678.4 mm. While the rains have always been a defining feature of life in the mountains, this year’s excess has tested resilience to its limits.
Yet, amid the destruction, the strength of local communities is evident. In villages like Gutrahan, neighbors have come together to clear debris, share food, and comfort one another. Farmers, though heartbroken over lost crops, speak with determination about starting again. “The land is damaged, but we will not give up,” one villager said, standing by a field now covered in mud.
As Himachal Pradesh endures the heaviest blows of nature, its people cling to hope—hope that the rains will ease, that relief will reach those in need, and that the mountains, though scarred, will remain a home worth rebuilding.