On Friday, August 15, Indian rescue teams continued digging through mud in search of victims, following a devastating flood that swept through a Himalayan village the previous day, leaving over 60 people dead.
Many others remain missing, including Hindu pilgrims who had been visiting a shrine, after heavy rains triggered powerful torrents of water and mud that inundated the village in the Kishtwar district of Indian-administered Kashmir.
It is the second major deadly flooding disaster in India this month.
Officials said a large makeshift kitchen in Chisoti village, where more than 100 pilgrims were completely washed away by what Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah called ‘cloudburst’ rain storm.
Heavy earthmovers were brought to the disaster area overnight to dig through deep mud, huge boulders and rubble that the flood brought down the mountainside.
The army’s White Knight Corps said its troops, “braving the harsh weather and rugged terrain, are engaged in the evacuation of the injured”.
An emergency kit, including ropes and digging tools, was being brought to the disaster site, with the army supporting other rescue teams.
One survivor said that he had heard a ‘big blast’ when the wall of water hit the settlement.
“We thought it was an earthquake”, the shocked eyewitness said, who did not give his name.
Mohammad Irshad, a top disaster management official, said that “60 people are recorded dead, with 80 people unaccounted for.”
“The search for the missing has intensified”, Irshad told AFP. Around 50 severely injured people have been taken to hospitals.
Floods and landslides are common during the June to September monsoon season, but experts say climate change, coupled with poorly planned development, is increasing their frequency, severity and impact.
Floods on August 5, overwhelmed the Himalayan town of Dharali in India’s Uttarakhand state, burying it in mud. The likely death toll from the disaster is estimated to be more than 70, although it has yet to be officially confirmed.
The UN’s world meteorological organisation said last year that increasingly intense floods and droughts are a “distress signal” of what is to come as climate change makes the planet’s water cycle ever more unpredictable.
Roads had already been damaged by days of heavy storms. The area lies more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) by road from the region’s main city, Srinagar.
Prime minister Narendra Modi addressed the spate of disasters in his Independence Day speech in New Delhi.
“In the past few days, we have been facing natural disasters, landslides, cloudbursts, and many other calamities”, Modi said in his public address.
“Our sympathies are with the affected people. State governments and the central government are working together with full strength.”
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