SHILLONG, June 17: The arrival of the monsoon has brought along with it a spell of disaster and death across the state, particularly in West Khasi Hills where five people, including two minor siblings, lost their lives on Saturday.
Two siblings, aged 10 and 15 years, were killed when their house collapsed after being hit by a landslide at Pyndengrei village in West Khasi Hills District at around 4.30 am on Saturday.
The bodies were retrieved with the help of family members and neighbours, the police said.
In the second incident, three people were reportedly swept away at Wah Blei river in the same district.
Reliable sources said fiver persons had gone fishing at Wah Blei when the tragedy unfolded. Eyewitnesses said they were last seen together at Sdad Dylla before the strong water current swept three of them at around 8 am.
The victims have been identified as Shilingbest Langrin, Huberth Marthong and Kmenlang Nonglang, all residents of Maweit village.
Sordar of the village, NS Langrin said there were five people together but two of them got went to another spot before the flash flood occurred. When they returned to the previous spot they could not locate their three friends and suspected that they might have been killed in the flash flood.
Members of the Maweit Dorbar along with locals and family members conducted a search but their bodies could not be retrieved.
In another incident, the police recovered the bodies of four persons who died after their truck had fallen into a deep gorge at Mawsynram in East Khasi Hills two days ago. There were altogether six persons in the vehicle.
Heavy and incessant rainfall for the past few days triggered landslides and mudslides in different areas of Sonapur along National Highway 6 which connects Meghalaya with Assam, Mizoram, Tripura and Manipur.
A mudslide, which occurred at around 5 am on Saturday, blocked the highway completely. The situation worsened when another mudslide hit the area at around 3 pm.
Officials said the road could be cleared in a few hours if there are no fresh landslides.
Later, the authorities issued an advisory stating that due to prevailing weather conditions in the district, the situation in landslide-hit Sonapyrdi Tunnel worsened. It said as both sides of the road are blocked, it is unsafe for travel at present.
Stating that the clearing work is being carried out rigorously by the National Highway Authority of India, the advisory said necessary help is being taken from other organizations.
“However, due to the enormity of the sludge that is descending at the Sonapyrdi Tunnel from the adjoining hills, the clearance and restoration of road for vehicular movement is likely to take more than 24 hours,” the advisory said.
Commuters were advised to opt for alternative routes, wherever possible.
The stretch of the Shillong-Dawki road at Rngain has been also affected by mudslides, especially because of the road widening work being carried out as part of the Shillong-Dawki road project.
Meanwhile, the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) has activated the Common Alerting Protocol following the forecast of heavy to very heavy rainfall in seven of the 12 districts, including East Khasi Hills.
SDMA Executive Director Matsiewdor War Nongbri said reports of fire, lightning strikes, landslides, mudslides and heavy rainfall were reported from across the state over the past nine days.
The officer said the Indian Meteorological Department has asked all districts to be on alert for heavy rainfall. So far in June, Shillong witnessed 379.0 mm of rainfall compared to 123.8 mm of rainfall in May.
