Leh Disaster

Rescuers battle odds to look for 500 missing, toll rises to 150

Choglumsar (Leh) Rescue workers struggled through piles of mud and slush looking for over 500 people missing in the Friday's devastating cloudburst that flattened villages and snapped power and communication links even as the death toll in the tragedy on Sunday mounted to 150.

The once picturesque landscape has turned into a disaster zone, with tossed up vehicles lying scattered and mounds of silt and slush burying houses made of mud called 'gomfa' and shops.
Walking on the layers of unstable mud in one of the worst-hit Choglusmar village, you could find the high tension wires hanging right next to you.
Rescuers waded through knee-deep mud to extricate trapped people. Jawans of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Army and General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) ploughed through the silt and boulders with earth movers, cranes and other machines, tourists were seen giving a helping hand.
The death toll has climbed to 150 while over 500 were still to be accounted for after the cloudburst and flash floods, official sources said.
Both the ITBP and the Army have set up various camps to look after hundreds of injured. The ITBP had also set up community kitchens along the roads which are feeding the homeless.
The biggest roadblock that rescue workers are facing is communication breakdown as the BSNL office was severely damaged in the deluge.
"The major problem is due to the communication breakdown. If communication is restored it will help in co-ordination of rescue operations in a better way," Pashi Tsetan, deputy director with the development wing of the local administration, said.
The district hospital building had been inundated by the swirling waters forcing the administration to move to an under-construction building.
Hundreds of people with bandages crowd the building. Doctors say many of the injured were swept away by the deluge for considerable distances before being rescued.
The bodies of two French nationals identified as Augariwelus and Hellot were retrieved from under the debris, the sources said.  (source:expressindia)