15,000 houses damaged in Kashmir windstorm

Tuesday’s windstorm and  avalanches have left a trail of death and destruction at a time when tourism season is starting in Kashmir.

The toll in the storm, considered to be the deadliest in the Valley, and avalanches has reached six while property worth hundreds of crores of rupees has been destroyed. Police said two more people including a child, who were injured in the storm on Tuesday, died in the hospital on Wednesday. With this the toll in the storm, which has now ebbed, has climbed to three.

Over 15,000 structures were fully or partially damaged in the windstorm that started on Monday afternoon and continued till Tuesday evening. Official figures reveal 11,641 residential and 4,074 non-residential buildings were houses were fully damaged, 6,670 houses were partially/severely damaged. Around 2,166 non-residential, six government buildings and 10 house boats were partially damaged in the storm.

Extensive damages have been caused to the houseboats in the famed Dal Lake. “I have never seen the Dal so choppy, it looks like a sea not a lake”, chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted.
“We have suffered damages but we are trying our best to repair them before the tourist season starts”, said Ghulam Mustafa, publicity secretary of House Boat Owners’ Association.