North receives severe lashing

MANGAN, 15 Dec: Last night’s windstorm has caused damages in several parts of North District as well. Shops at Mangan Bazaar remained closed till 11:30 a.m. this morning.
The District Collector’s official residence was damaged as the winds brought down a tree on the house.
Meanwhile, according to GVA Chungthang, Karma Thendup Bhutia, one kutcha house at Lachung was totally damaged, the Gor-Sangtok GPU road blocked due to fallen trees, local approach road to Kazor village also blocked and a classroom of Mangan Senior Secondary School damaged when a tree fell down on the roof.
At Lower Mangan bazaar, a parked vehicle was damaged and electricity poles damaged at several places between Chungthang and Rangrang.
At Malling village above Mangan bazaar, 2 houses, 5 green houses and a poultry farm have been totally destroyed.
In Namok, a school was damaged while near Mangan BAC a house has been damaged. One house belonging to Singhi Bhutia and a green-house belonging to Passang Lhamu has been damaged in Kabi block.
At Pakshep, a house belonging to Phurba Sherpa was damaged while at Nampatam village of Ringhim-Nampatam GPU a cremation shed and a cow shed have been totally damaged.
A district administration emergency coordination meeting was conducted by ADC, North, RK Yadav today which was attended by SDM Mangan, PW Lepcha, SDPO Magan, P Bhutia, Disaster Management staff, Police department, Power department, Forest department staff and Roads & Bridges department.
Meanwhile, the road to Lachen has been blocked and traffic was expected to resume by this evening while traffic along the highway from Gangtok to Chungthang has been restored.
The North district administration has issued an advisory to all citizens to stay alert and also reassured that there was no need to panic.
The DC North has projected the scale of damage to government property alone to be in the vicinity of Rs. 1 crore. Status report has been dispatched to higher authorities and Revenue Supervisors and the Department will prepare a detailed damage report by Monday evening and compensation will then be released as per norms.