mumbai when heavy rains started pounding chiplun town in maharashtras ratnagiri district on july 21 little did pragati rane who runs a small coaching centre there think that things could escalate to the level that she her family and others would have to scale the sloped roofs of their houses and sit there precariously through the night amid the downpour clinging on to hope although their nightmare ended after the national disaster response force ndrf rescued them hours later an uphill task of rebuilding their own lives now awaits rane and scores others like her chiplun khed and several other towns in ratnagiri and parts of neighbouring raigad bore the brunt of the torrential rain and the subsequent floods over the last few days with several rivers in the region flowing above the danger mark although the water level has receded to a large extent in most of the affected parts the floods have left a trail of large scale damage from sludge and heaps of mud in the houses and roads to loss of loved ones it was raining heavily on 21 july but i thought that the water level will rise for a few hours and then recede however due to the incessant downpour the water level suddenly rose during the night and we all had to leave everything behind and reach the sloped claytiled roof of the house rane said we were rescued by the ndrf team the next eveningit was a horrible experience for meeverything we had in the house is permanently damaged i have lost many kitchen utensils and other things she said the situation in khed and mahad towns was no different mujaffar khan from mahad who runs a photocopy shop said after running the shop till 4 pm i went home by 5 on july 21 after that the downpour was so heavy that i could not visit the shop after that i could only go there today morning the road to the shop was first underwater and now there is a thick layer of mud i have no idea how to remove the mud because it is not just the layer of soil there are dead animals in it like rats the whole lane is stinking we have approached the local authorities but everyone is burdened with work right now he said the maharashtra government has said that 76 people have died and 30 have gone missing in the floodhit parts of the state after the floods the major challenge before the administration is supplying drinking water food and medicines to the affected people several schools as well as some private properties are currently used as shelters as well as primary treatment centres for the injured people the real challenge is identifying missing people and helping them to trace their relatives a senior official of the ndrf said maharashtra minister uday samant who hails from ratnagiri has been holding meetings with local officials in ratnagiri to expedite the officials works water