After a terrible flash flood hit a group of villages in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, rescuers in Uttarkashi are sifting through piles of mud and debris in a desperate hunt for survivors and victims. The disaster, which at first seemed to be triggered by a cloudburst, has destroyed dozens of structures and taken a lot of lives.
On Wednesday, relief crews found two dead, but officials on the ground are worried that the death toll may grow a lot. There are still conflicting reports about the exact number of victims, with some saying there are only a few verified deaths and others saying there are dozens of missing people, including 11 army members.
There is an investigation going on to find out what caused the disaster. At first, it looked like cloudbursts were to blame, but specialists from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) are now looking into the potential of a glacier collapse upstream of the Kheer Ganga river. This idea says that a detached glacial snout generated a huge flood of debris that, along with recent heavy rainfall, moved downstream with deadly intensity.
State and central forces are working together to save people, and hundreds of people from the Indian Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Border Roads Organization, and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are involved. As of Wednesday night, around 190 people, including 11 soldiers, had been rescued from the Dharali region. The injured soldiers were flown to Dehradun for medical care.
The enormity of the destruction has made it very hard for rescue personnel to talk to each other and get to the scene. The roads and bridges that connected the villages of Dharali, Harsil, and Sukki to the main town of Uttarkashi have been entirely destroyed. A 100-meter stretch of road fell in at Bhatwari, and a bridge at Limchagad was swept away. This made the shortest path to the disaster areas impossible. The Border Roads Organization has sent six officials and more than 100 workers to fix broken lines and restore communication. A temporary footbridge is also being built to bring in important supplies.
Families of the missing are in pain as they wait for word of their loved ones. Rakesh Panwar, who works in Uttarkashi town, told a scary story of a phone call he got from his brother while he was home for lunch when the water hit. “My brother called me in amazement and said, ‘Nothing is left. Rakesh added, “My family couldn’t escape the flood…” His brother, sister-in-law, and three-year-old son are all missing.
The weather outlook for the area is still bad. The India Meteorological Department says that Uttarakhand will continue to have heavy to very heavy rain over the next 24 hours. Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Chief Minister of the state, went to Dharali village to watch the relief efforts. He said, “Our top priority is to help everyone who was affected and get things back to normal as soon as possible.” Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked to the Chief Minister and was told what was going on. He promised complete cooperation from the central government.
The calamity has been compared to the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) that happened in February 2021 in Chamoli district and killed more than 200 laborers. Safi Ahsan Rizvi, an advisor to the NDMA, said that this occurrence could be like a GLOF because the rain may have caused debris to become loose and flow downstream.
After a terrible flash flood hit a group of villages in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, rescuers in Uttarkashi are sifting through piles of mud and debris in a desperate hunt for survivors and victims. The disaster, which at first seemed to be triggered by a cloudburst, has destroyed dozens of structures and taken a lot of lives.
On Wednesday, relief crews found two dead, but officials on the ground are worried that the death toll may grow a lot. There are still conflicting reports about the exact number of victims, with some saying there are only a few verified deaths and others saying there are dozens of missing people, including 11 army members.
There is an investigation going on to find out what caused the disaster. At first, it looked like cloudbursts were to blame, but specialists from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) are now looking into the potential of a glacier collapse upstream of the Kheer Ganga river. This idea says that a detached glacial snout generated a huge flood of debris that, along with recent heavy rainfall, moved downstream with deadly intensity.
State and central forces are working together to save people, and hundreds of people from the Indian Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Border Roads Organization, and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are involved. As of Wednesday night, around 190 people, including 11 soldiers, had been rescued from the Dharali region. The injured soldiers were flown to Dehradun for medical care.
The enormity of the destruction has made it very hard for rescue personnel to talk to each other and get to the scene. The roads and bridges that connected the villages of Dharali, Harsil, and Sukki to the main town of Uttarkashi have been entirely destroyed. A 100-meter stretch of road fell in at Bhatwari, and a bridge at Limchagad was swept away. This made the shortest path to the disaster areas impossible. The Border Roads Organization has sent six officials and more than 100 workers to fix broken lines and restore communication. A temporary footbridge is also being built to bring in important supplies.
Families of the missing are in pain as they wait for word of their loved ones. Rakesh Panwar, who works in Uttarkashi town, told a scary story of a phone call he got from his brother while he was home for lunch when the water hit. “My brother called me in amazement and said, ‘Nothing is left. Rakesh added, “My family couldn’t escape the flood…” His brother, sister-in-law, and three-year-old son are all missing.
The weather outlook for the area is still bad. The India Meteorological Department says that Uttarakhand will continue to have heavy to very heavy rain over the next 24 hours. Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Chief Minister of the state, went to Dharali village to watch the relief efforts. He said, “Our top priority is to help everyone who was affected and get things back to normal as soon as possible.” Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked to the Chief Minister and was told what was going on. He promised complete cooperation from the central government.
The calamity has been compared to the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) that happened in February 2021 in Chamoli district and killed more than 200 laborers. Safi Ahsan Rizvi, an advisor to the NDMA, said that this occurrence could be like a GLOF because the rain may have caused debris to become loose and flow downstream.