Updated

Srinagar, Mar 30 (IANS): Sixteen people were buried alive as two houses collapsed and a young man was washed away in floods that ravaged the Kashmir Valley on Monday following four days of incessant rainfall. Anxious people fled to safety as the Jhelum river rose dangerously and swollen streams rushed down mountains.

Authorities on Monday declared Jammu and Kashmir as flood-hit and people feared a repeat of 2014 when surging waters left a trail of death and destruction in the state.

A police officer told IANS that a landslide in Laden village of Budgam district buried two houses, trapping under debris 16 people from two families.

"We have not recovered any body from the debris," he added.

Reports in Jammu said a vehicle carrying cattle on way to Udhampur from Doda was caught in flash floods and a young man, Angrez Singh, was washed away.

As the situation turned grim, many fled to safety.

For Nisar Hussain, 65, who lives in the Gogjibagh residential area of Srinagar with his 60-year-old wife and 27-year-old daughter, this has been the second uprooting after unprecedented floods hit Jammu and Kashmir last year.

A worried Nisar said that on Sunday night he had to quickly shift out his family after flood alert was sounded by the authorities.

"This is a trauma. My daughter simply refused to live at Gogjibagh after the news about the water level rising in the Jhelum river was flashed on the TV news channels," he said.

"I would not have come back...It is simply intolerable. What is this? We had floods in autumn, we have them in the spring now. Summers are otherwise also known for floods in Kashmir," he said.

Ghulam Rasool, 56, another local who had come back to live in his flood-hit home in Rajbagh, did not even wait for the authorities to issue the flood warning.

"I left everything behind and shifted out of my home along with my family hardly four hours after it looked the rain was unending during Saturday night," he recalled.

Water inundated the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway at Pampore town, 12 km from Srinagar. Reports said Jhelum river waters had breached the embankment at one place in Pampore town, inundating the highway.

A top divisional administration official told IANS: "Flood level was 22.8 feet at Sangam (Anantnag), 19 feet at Ram Munshi Bagh (Srinagar), and 11.55 feet at Ashim (Bandipora) today (Monday) morning."

The official added that people living along the banks of Jhelum were advised to exercise extreme caution. "Moving to safer places from vulnerable areas is advised."

People living in flood-prone areas of Srinagar city, especially those in Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Wazir Bagh and some other places began shifting to safer places since Sunday evening.

Many shopkeepers in the Residency Road and Lal Chowk commercial hub of the city moved their merchandise to safer places. These areas were the worst hit during the unprecedented floods of last September.

Over 80 public and private properties suffered partial or total damage because of incessant rainfall.

The strategic Jammu-Srinagar highway was closed since Saturday. Authorities in Jammu said the highway would remain closed on Monday as well.

An avalanche warning was also sounded in the higher reaches of the state and all examinations scheduled have been postponed up to April 3.

Inter-district connectivity has also been severely affected in the valley.

Srinagar-Gulmarg, Srinagar-Kupwara and Srinagar-Bandipora roads have been blocked due to flash floods and washing away of some bridges and culverts on these roads.

The weather office has forecast improvement in weather from Monday.

"There would be decrease in precipitation from today (Monday). Another western disturbance is likely to hit the state on April 2, but the intensity of that western disturbance is going to be much less than the one that had been active here during the last four days," Sonam Lotus, director of the local Met Office, told IANS.

The central government was in constant touch with the government of Jammu and Kashmir, and monitoring the flood situation.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

No breach of embankment has been reported, an official statement said.

Two teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deputed and four other teams kept on stand-by.

Earlier Report

Flood horror haunts Srinagar, people abandon homes, shops

By Sheikh Qayoom

Srinagar, March 30 (IANS): Nisar Hussain, 65, who lives in the Gogjibagh residential area of Srinagar, repents his decision to have come back home after three months. For his 60-year-old wife and 27-year-old daughter, this has been the second uprooting after unprecedented floods hit Jammu and Kashmir last year.

When flood waters rose to the second floor of his house in September 2014, Nisar and his family remained trapped in the attic for three days before the army's rescue team came to move them out in motor boats.

He and his family moved to a relative's house in old city area of Habba Kadal for two months. And then in December, after locking his flood ravaged house, Nisar shifted with family to Delhi where he lived for three months at a rented accommodation.

"I came back to my home after over three months. We started living on the first floor of our home as the ground floor still smells of flood and fungus," he told IANS.

A worried Nisar said that on Sunday night he had to quickly shift his family to Habba Kadal after flood alert was sounded by the authorities.

"This is a trauma. My daughter simply refused to live at Gogjibagh after the news about the water level rising in the Jhelum river was flashed on the TV news channels," he said.

"I would not have come back, had my daughter not to report for duty early this month. It is simply intolerable. What is this? We had floods in autumn, we have them in the spring now. Summers are otherwise also known for floods in Kashmir," he said.

Nisar is one of dozens of other families who have moved during the past three days in areas like Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Wazir Bagh, and Gogjibagh. These localities bore the brunt of flood devastation in September 2014. Any downpour has been bad news for thousands of residents in these areas since September.

Ghulam Rasool, 56, another local who had come back to live in his flood hit home in Rajbagh, did not even wait for the authorities to warn him.

"I left everything behind and shifted out of my home along with my family hardly four hours after it looked the rain was unending during Saturday night," he recalled.

Shopkeepers in the once posh and fashionable Residency Road, Lal Chowk and Maisuma commercial hubs started shifting their merchandise since Sunday morning, loading goods on big and small load carriers depending on the stocks in their shops.

These commercial areas of the city had remained submerged under flood waters for over 20 days in September 2014 even after the water level had receded to normal in the Jhelum river.

"Once bitten is twice shy. But I don't think there is a proverb about somebody's state of mind who is bitten twice. I have still been redoing the windows and showcases of my shop and here is another disaster staring straight into my eyes. This is maddening," said Altaf Ahmad, 54, who owns a shop on Residency Road in Srinagar.

What has made matters worse is anti-social elements posting last year's flood pictures showing inundated homes and areas. These posts on social networking sites, claiming these pictures were recent, have caused panic.

Authorities have asked people living close to the Jhelum to exercise extreme caution. The massive waterlogging in the city has created a flood like situation in roads, bylanes and markets.

People wading in knee-deep water and vehicles suffering mechanical failure is a common sight in the city.

Naeem Akhtar, a senior minister in the ruling coalition, says the water table is already high due to last year's floods and a downpour is enough to choke the drainage system in Srinagar.

It stopped raining in the state since Monday morning and the weather office has said there would be decrease in precipitation.

"But, another Western Disturbance is likely to hit the state on April 3 although it would not be so active as the present one that resulted in heavy rainfall during the last three days," Sonam Lotus, director of the local weather office told IANS on Monday.

Authorities have said there has been no breach in the river embankment anywhere in the valley and since the rainfall has stopped, water levels in rivers and streams would start coming down from Tuesday.

These assurances, however, mean little to people who have been living on the edge since the September 2014 floods ravaged their lives as another is looming large over them.