Weather is sunny but snow yet to start melting

Photo: Sinless Sinner ‏@Ashnasami[/caption] An official of Aga Khan Agency for Habitat  (formerly FOCUS) told ChiralToday that temperature in the town was -1 at 7am on Tuesday. He said vehicular traffic in the town was yet to normalize as only one single track of roads was open. People have removed snow from the rooftops of their houses and other buildings and threw them onto the roadsides making it more difficult for clearing of the roads, he added. He said the local administration was busy in clearing the road to airport from Chitral town which may be opened by late on Tuesday. The runway of the airport is yet to be cleared of snow for the PIA to resume its three flights a week schedule on the Chitral route. The official said the road from Chiral town to Lowari tunnel was clear but the NHA decided not to open the tunnel on Tuesday as a precautionary measure. The tunnel would be opened on Wednesday. He said the Chitral to Booni road had been cleared of snow but so far it was partially opened for traffic and only 4×4 vehicles could travel on it. All other roads to major sub-valleys, Garam Chashma, Bumburate, Torkhow, Mulkhow, Mastuj, Yarkhun and Laspur are closed. The official said his department staff was in touch with the people of avalanche-hit Shershal in Karimabad and had stocked necessary relief items in the village. He said the agency had already warned the residents of the village of Shershal about the avalanche and possible safety measures before the incident when nine people were buried by the snow slide on Sunday. He said the agency also had a weather monitoring post in the Shershal area and after recording the snow had been updating the area people.  He said when the snowfall crossed the threshold level of 30 inch, the agency staff thrice warned the area people about the danger of avalanches. The warning was issued to them through the Ismaili local  council, during a house-to-house campaign and at a gathering after the death of an elderly woman in the village about a week back, he added. Meanwhile, a resident of Yarkhun told ChiralToday that a large number of people from the area remained stranded in different parts of Chitral, especially in the Chitral town, due to the blockade of the roads. Similarly, hundreds of people were stranded in Peshawar, Islamabad and other cities waiting for he opening of eh roads and the Lowari tunnel. Reports said that a small powerhouse was damaged in the Awi while three houses were hit by avalanches in the nearby Meragram village.]]>