At least nine more deaths were reported in rain-related incidents in Saurashtra, as heavy rain continued to lash the region for the fifth day on Wednesday, cutting off towns like Dwarka and Okha in Devbhumi Dwarka. Four deaths were reported from Morbi district, two each from Rajkot and Surendranagar districts and one from Devbhumi Dwarka. Morbi Collector K B Jhaveri said that four of the eight persons who had gone missing after a tractor-trailer in which they were travelling was washed away in Kanakavati river in Dhavana village on Sunday night, were found dead on Wednesday. “Teams of NDRF and SDRF found four persons dead today. With that, the number of the casualties in the incident has gone up to seven. One more person is still reported missing,” Jhaveri added. When the tractor-trailer was washed away in the river, 17 people were in it. While nine were rescued, three were found dead on Tuesday. In Rajkot, Jayesh Radadiya (40), his wife Sonal (39) and their son Dharmesh (11) were washed away in a river after their car was swept off a causeway at Moti Khilori village in Gondal taluka on Wednesday. Later in the day, the couple was found dead downstream the causeway. “The child is still missing and a search is in progress,” Rajkot Collector Prabhav Joshi said. In Surendranagar district, Danabhai Vitthalpara (50) and Dhanji Akhiyani (45) were killed in rain-related incidents in Kodh and Osvada villages of Dhrangadhra taluka, respectively, on Tuesday, officials said. In Devbhumi Dwarka, agricultural labourer Bhikalibai Undariya (32) was killed after a tree fell on him in a field in Gunda village of Bhanvad taluka early Wednesday, the district disaster management control room said. Temple town Dwarka and port town Okha in Devbhumi Dwarka district were cut from the rest of the state, as traffic had to be halted after national highway 51 and state highway 6 were flooded. Officials said that road connectivity between Dwarka and Okha was also lost as national highway 51, connecting the two towns, was flooded at Mojap and had to be closed to vehicular traffic. Following heavy rain, government-run community health centre in Raval village of Devbhumi Dwarka was flooded and patients had to be shifted elsewhere. Meanwhile, NDRF, SDRF, Army, local fire brigade and police rescued 43 people in Devbhumi Dwarka and 107 in Jamnagar while evacuating 543 and 1,955 in the twin districts, respectively. “Kalyanpur taluka has logged around 27 inches of rain in 24 hours ending at 6 pm on Wednesday evening. Dwarka and Khambhalia talukas received around 23 inches and 20 inches of rain, respectively, during this period,” Devbhumi Dwarka Collector G T Pandya said. He added that one team of NDRF has been deployed for Dwarka and Okha and one team of the Army has been deployed for Khabhaliya and Raval. In Jamnagar, 107 people were rescued, including 11 airlifted by the Air Force, from flooded areas. “The area outside Kalavad Naka in Jamnagar city is flooded. 1,955 people have been evacuated from the city and 755 from rural areas,” said an official.
