At least four people are confirmed dead, and almost a hundred are missing, after a flash flood wiped out the small riverside village of Dharali in northern India on Tuesday.
The flood was triggered by a “cloudburst,” a sudden and intense burst of rain over a small area. Such periods of intense rainfall are not uncommon in the foothills of the Himalayas, where the steep terrain can produce terrifying walls of water that descend without warning upon low-lying villages.
Such was the fate of Dharali, a riverside town with an army camp located nearby. The flash flood leveled dozens of buildings and pushed others into the river, while a mudslide slammed into the army camp. The river flooded from the sudden infusion of rainwater, adding to the challenges faced by rescue workers.
“There are a lot of guest houses, restaurants and hotels there, because of which we immediately requested the army to aid rescue operations,” said Prashant Arya, district magistrate of Uttarakhand state.
“The entire Dharali has been completely hit by the disaster, and after yesterday’s incident, people told us that mudslides happened once, twice, six times,” said Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who visited the scene on Wednesday.
“The entire connecting road has been completely affected by landslides at many places,” he said. “Carrying out rescue operations and re-operationalizing facilities is extremely challenging because the weather keeps deteriorating.”
Dhami said rescue workers were deployed to the area on a “war footing,” and were “doing everything possible to save lives and provide relief.”
A disaster management official said one stroke of good luck on a grim day was that many Dharali residents were “at a fair at a safe location” when the flood waters struck.
Poor weather conditions and constant flooding have also made it difficult to recover the bodies of the dead. Local officials said four bodies had been recovered as of Wednesday. Dozens of people are believed to be trapped in the rubble of collapsed and flooded buildings. The nearby army camp reported that 11 of its soldiers are missing.
Dhami said on Tuesday night that roughly 130 people have been rescued alive from the ruins of Dharali.
“There was nothing anyone could do,” said local politician Lokendra Bisht. “The whole of Dharali village was wiped out.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Dhami on Tuesday, and offered his condolences to those affected by the flash floods.
“Under the supervision of the state government, relief and rescue teams are engaged in every possible effort. No stone is being left unturned in providing assistance to the people,” he said.
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