Loss still being assessed

Disaster: Trongsa dzongkhag officials are still assessing the scale of damage the torrential rain on June 26 caused in the dzongkhag.

So far damages on four houses including damage on a two-storied traditional house in Denshing, Nubi gewog were reported. Residents of a three-storied building below the fuel depot, on the Zhemgang highway, have also been evacuated after sliding land damaged the house.

The under-construction truck parking below the fuel depot suffered the worse damage as it was covered with tonnes of debris the flash flood brought along with it. The parking has sunk and one of the breast walls has collapsed. Floodwater also washed away the retaining wall at the entrance of the parking. Below it, land is sliding away causing more risk.

“The entire parking has sunk since the outlet drain couldn’t bear the deluge of run off water,” assistant engineer, Tobgay said.  The approach road to truck parking has also sunk by two meters. “In fact entire truck parking is sinking as the land is sliding from below,” Tobgay said.

Landslides have also occurred below the damaged building next to the truck parking. The damage assessment team said entire area around truck parking, where office of department of roads (DoR), district court and fuel depot are located is sliding and sinking.

While Thruepang palace is safe, flooding waters have washed away around 30 meters of its inner boundary wall. The district engineer, Passang Dorji said the walls gave in to the pressure from the water, which went flooding over the lawn in the palace courtyard after the drainage was clogged with debris.

“Although the drainage was expanded in 2014, the waters went flooding because of deluge of debris carried by the run off waters clogged the drain,” Passang Dorji said, adding diverting the stream behind the palace from its present course will be an effective mitigation method.

Core Trongsa town is also at risk from massive sliding of land behind Oyster hotel to the traffic roundabout. The sliding measures around 70 meters.

“Though the width of the cracks have remained unchanged since it happened on June 26, the entire area has sunk by 1.5 feet creating a crevice of around a feet wide,” Tobgay said.

To mitigate further sliding, engineers have suspended the municipal water supply in-take and outlet pipes. “There is no threat from the municipal water pipes as the water were turned off from the outlet tank below Sherubling,” Tobgay said.

Residents have been asked to stay alert and be prepared when it rained.

Meanwhile, Mangdechu hydropower project workers are transshipping steel rods manually  from a 18-wheeler truck that got stuck below DoR office where a portion of the road was washed away. About 11 Mangdechu bound trucks are stuck between Bjizam and the DoR office.

Tempa Wangdi, Trongsa