Rains add to miseries of flood-hit people living in tents

Srinagar, Oct 8: Hundreds of families living in tents after their houses were damaged by the devastating

which swept

a month ago spent a sleepless night as rains lashed many parts of the Valley adding to their woes.

Srinagar recorded 23.6 mm of rainfall yesterday and the Met Department has predicted more for today. "We had a sleepless night. We were awake throughout the night as it was raining heavily. It reminded us of the horrors we underwent when the floods hit," Abdul Rashid Bhat, a resident of Rajbagh area of the city here, told PTI.

Bhat, whose family, along with 44 others, lives in tents erected on the roadside near the banks of River Jhelum, as their houses were damaged by the flood waters, said the fear was heightened by thunderstorms and lightning. "We were terrified as the sky started to roar.

There are Chinar trees around us and we were wary of those as well. A Chinar tree has already fallen on a mosque and damaged it," he said. Bilal Ahmad Khosa, who lives with 14 of his family members, including nine children, in a tent provided by the state police, said the night was as tense as the one on September 6 when the waters started seeping into the area thereby flooding it.

"Our two-storey house was damaged by the floods. We lived in a relief camp on the Hariparbat hillock, while some others took refuge in the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) nearby. After few days, as the waters receded from the main roads, we were provided tents by the police and we erected them here," he said. Khosa said as the rains started yesterday, the residents had to cover up the tents with tarpaulin or thermocol as water was seeping into them.

PTI