Surat: Heavy rain flooded Valsad and other parts of South Gujarat on Thursday. Umargam in Valsad received 684mm of rain between midnight and noon. From noon on Thursday till 6pm, the coastal taluka got 114mm of rain.Two spans of the bridge over the Varoli river were damage in Umargam and a portion of the bridge was swept away. The road has been closed.A total of 474 roads, including National Highway 48, were closed to traffic in Valsad due to water overtopping the carriageway. A bridge near Umarsadi over the Par river suffered serious damage when a construction barge crashed into it due to the gushing water. The pontoon had been deployed for a bridge upstream but got swept away.Over 500 people were shifted to community halls in Valsad on Thursday. A group of 20 workers trapped in floodwaters at Hinglaj village was rescued by an SDRF team in the early hours of Thursday. They were working at shrimp farms and got trapped as the water level started rising.In another rescue, 30 passengers of a bus headed to Maharashtra were trapped in water near Ambheti village in Nanapondha taluka and were stranded for nearly eight hours.‘“The passengers were rescued at night. Rescue teams of the NDRF, SDRF, police and fire department are working round the clock on rescue and relief operations,” said Nitin Sangwan, district collector, Valsad.In Valsad, 12,754 people were moved to safer locations due to flooding on Thursday. According to the district administration, 18 heads of cattle died and 38 houses, including 27 kutcha homes, suffered damaged. In Kaprada taluka, the rain destroyed several roads, bridges and temporary structures, due to which some interior tribal village will likely be cut off for days.
