Rains and Broken Roads Complicate Flood Rescue in Indian Himalayas
Confirming the precise death toll may take up to a week, officials said, warning that the number of casualties could rise substantially.
On Wednesday, Pushkar Singh Dhami, the chief minister of the northern state of Uttarakhand, told an Indian news outlet that at least 190 people had been rescued from the wreckage, after a muddy torrent of water ripped into the village of Dharali the day before, bulldozing buildings and burying the area in mud.
The town's central marketplace was destroyed, according to the district office managing the disaster relief, and roads were damaged and transportation was difficult. People in the area were evacuated to shelter sites, and many families were anxiously waiting to find out the fate of relatives caught in the natural disaster, the office added.
Indian Army forces, equipped with tracking dogs, drones and earth-moving equipment, have supplemented the rescue effort. Images of the effort published by Reuters show teams using ziplines to rescue marooned victims and deploying heavy machinery to move large boulders and pieces of debris.
The floods and landslide caused large boulders to block narrow mountain roads that lead into Dharali, and ripped mobile phone towers and electric lines from the ground, making it difficult to establish communication with the area. Those factors, along with strong, continued rains, have made it harder for rescue workers to quickly locate missing people, officials said.
Uttarakhand is prone to floods and landslides. In 2013, the state suffered its deadliest floods, which left over 6,000 people dead.
The monsoon rains this year have also created significant damage in the neighboring state of Himachal Pradesh. Nearly 200 people have been killed over the past six weeks in monsoon-related disasters, according to official data, and 300 others have been injured and three dozen missing.
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