At least 14 people have been killed and more than 150 missing after a flash flood swept through a mountainous valley in the Himalayas in northern India, attacking hydroelectric projects and devastating local workers.
The flooding occurred when a glacier near the Rishi Ganga River, one of the tributaries of the Ganges, broke and sank in the river on Sunday morning. Images from local television showed a huge wave of brown water taking over the valley, flooding the coasts, causing avalanches and knocking down buildings.
The water hit a small hydraulic project, washing a dam and damaging a larger hydroelectric project that was being built downstream. Some 154 people working on the two projects at the time were still missing Sunday night, according to Mukesh Kumar, a data entry operator at the disaster management authority in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand state. , where the incident took place.
“The 14 bodies of the workers were recovered from the river,” Kumar said. “Only tomorrow will we know the identity of the dead and missing workers.”
Police assisted in the rescue effort after a small hydroelectric dam was flooded in the village of Chormi, Uttarakhand state, on 7 February.
Photo:
Reuters
Army, police and National Disaster Response Force teams from India helped rescue the workers late at night, which included helping to dig workers trapped in a tunnel at one of the sites. On Sunday, Navy divers were dispatched while the Indian Air Force was waiting to assist in any rescue, the government said.
“Now all our attention is on the rescue,” Trivendra Singh Rawat, the chief minister of states, said in a news release.
Hundreds of people died in the same state after a similar flood in 2013 when the wall of a glacial lake broke after heavy rains, sweeping a valley full of thousands of pilgrims who visited one of the most sacred temples in the world. ‘Hinduism.
After the disaster, more than 4,000 people were presumed to be missing, although the official death toll remained at a few hundred, government officials said at the time.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was talking to senior officials and was receiving updates on rescue efforts and relief operations. He announced a government fund to support the families of those killed and injured by the disaster.
“India is with Uttarakhand and the nation is praying for the safety of all there,” he said on Twitter.
—Rajesh Roy contributed to this article.
Write to Krishna Pokharel at [email protected]
Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8