[1]One hundred and thirteen people have been killed and over 400 injured in flash floods triggered by sudden overnight heavy rain, officials said on Friday. The toll in the biggest natural catastrophe in Leh’s living history is likely to go up as more than 50 people, including many children, are missing.
Officials said late Friday evening that more than 400 people have been injured. Rescue operations, suspended for the night, will be resumed at first light on Saturday. National Disaster Response Force men were being flown from Chandigarh to assist the Leh administration in rescue operations, the officials added.
Till late Friday evening 113 bodies had been retrieved from the debris of flattened homes or were found dotted over the hills and inundated roads following the cloudburst and the mudslides set off by it.
Communications in Ladakh’s main town, situated at an altitude of 11,562 feet. (3,524 metres) have been severed. The Army, which has a heavy presence in the mountainous region which shares a sensitive border with Tibet and Pakistan, has joined police and paramilitary personnel in rescue and relief operations but officials said the effort is being hampered by gushing water and debris.
[Eyewitnesses and other sources fear that the death toll could cross 500 as several far-flung villages were yet to be accessed by rescue teams, PTI reports. A contractor told senior state administration officials that 150 of his labourers were missing from Shyong village where he had lodged them. The colony was set up along the river Sindh and officials feared that many huts would have been washed away in the flash floods. Over 200 people were still reported to be missing from the worst-hit village, Chougham Sar, 13 km from Leh. The authorities said the Army had suffered losses in Turtuk area. Some of the villages along the Chang-la pass, the world’s second-highest motorable road, were also believed to have been washed away, PTI reports. While many villages, like Sabu, Phyang, Nimoo and Choglamsar, were affected, Leh city bore the maximum brunt.]
Jammu and Kashmir tourism and culture minister Nawang Rigzin Jora, who could be contacted on the phone last at 3 pm, said, “A catastrophe has struck my place and my people. All I can see around are bodies and the debris of flattened houses and other buildings, and under these more bodies and the injured crying for help.”
DGP Kuldeep Khuda said a massive cloudburst over Leh town’s Choglumsar area late Thursday night resulted in heavy rain, mudslides and flash floods. “A number of houses were completely destroyed, the worst affected in the flash floods being the old Leh town where the main hospital building, bus stand and telephone exchange are submerged,” he said. Leh airport was, however, open but all flights from Delhi to Leh had to be cancelled. The ITBP camp and a number of government offices have also been damaged. The police chief said he had ordered temporary rehabilitation of the dislocated families in District Police Lines (DPL) Leh and a free langar has been set up there for the survivors.
The National Disaster Management Authority in New Delhi has kept its men and material ready to be airlifted as soon as Leh airport becomes operational, state chief secretary S.S. Kapoor said.
The authorities said flash floods and mudslides caught people while they were asleep. Their homes and several government buildings were washed away and telephone towers were uprooted or damaged. The town’s main bus terminus has been flattened, reports said. Over 6,000 soldiers, besides a large number of paramilitary and police personnel, were conducting rescue and relief work.
At Balti Bazar in neighbouring Kargil, about four residential housed were partially damaged in heavy downpours but all 39 inhabitants were rescued. Those residing near the Suru river bank have been shifted to safer places, reports said.
In Srinagar, chief minister Omar Abdullah held an emergency meeting of a group of ministers and top government functionaries to take stock. He immediately released Rs 5 crores for relief and restoration work and also Rs 2 crores each for flash flood sufferers in the Kashmir Valley and in the Jammu region. The meeting, expressing deep sorrow and grief over the loss of human life and property, directed the administration to intensify relief and rescue operations and shift the affected to safer locations and government buildings on a war footing. The district administration, Leh, has been directed to provide immediate relief, including essential commodities and medicine, to the affected and to urgently undertake a preliminary assessment of the losses.
It also approved Rs 2 crores as ex gratia to the next of kin of those killed and as relief to the injured in the cloudburst. Rs 100,000 is to be paid to the next of kin of each deceased from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
Soon after the meeting, the CM flew into Leh on his official helicopter and extensively toured the city for a first-hand appraisal. He also reviewed rescue and relief operation measures being jointly carried out by the Army, police and district administration. He directed the Leh administration to be at the beck and call of the people. Mr Abdullah said the focus should be on rescuing those who are expected to be alive under the debris. Later, he chaired a meeting of the district administration at which Mr Jora, chief executive councillor of the Autonomous Hill Development Council of Leh; the GOC, 14th Corps; the Leh deputy commissioner and other senior officers were present. The CM directed that essential supplies and healthcare facilities for the people be ensured and asked the administration to gear up all units at all levels to meet the situation.
A three-member Central team comprising Dr Farooq Abdullah, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mr Prithviraj Chavan will be visiting the area on Saturday.
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