Yellow alert for six districts of Himachal over 2 days

The Met Department today issued a yellow warning of thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places in six out of 12 districts of the state tomorrow and the day after.

The weather remained mainly dry in the past two days but the Met office warned of heavy rain in Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur districts tomorrow.

As many as 23 roads were still closed for vehicular traffic in the state, officials said on Tuesday. The maximum 10 roads were closed in Kangra, six in Mandi, four in Kullu, two in Shimla and one in Sirmaur district while nine power supply projects had been affected, as per the state emergency operation centre.

The rain deficit in the current monsoon season from June 1 till September 24 was 21 per cent with Himachal receiving 573.7 mm of rainfall against the normal of 723.1 mm, the Met office said.

Officials said that as per the latest update, 177 persons had died in rain-related incidents since the onset of the monsoon while 31 were missing. The state had suffered losses to the tune of Rs 1,331 crore, they added.