Tapovan, India – Indian rescue workers on Tuesday struggled to dig out tons of rock and mud to reach survivors in a choked Himalayan tunnel after a devastating flash flood likely caused by a glacial eruption. More than 170 people were still missing two days after a wall of water and debris hurled through a valley in the northern state of Uttarakhand, destroying bridges and roads, hitting two hydroelectric plants and killing 32 people.
The disaster is due to the rapidly melting glaciers in the Himalayas, exacerbated by global warming. Indian researchers have said that while it initially seemed that the collapse of a glacial lake triggered the flash flood, it was likely that a landslide and avalanche crashed into the glacier that unleashed the waterfall on the valley.
Construction activities for dams and dredging riverbeds for sand and clearing trees for new roads – some to strengthen defenses on the Chinese border – may also have played a role in destabilizing the area.
AP
Most of the missing were employees of two of the many hydropower plants being built around Uttarakhand, a mountainous and environmentally fragile state slightly smaller than Switzerland.
Hundreds of rescue workers were involved in the operation statewide, using helicopters equipped with surface-penetrating high-definition cameras, as well as tracking dogs.
On Tuesday, the focus sought to locate and extract 34 workers who rescuers hoped were still alive in air pockets in a tunnel system filled with icy water and debris. Workers toiled all day and when darkness fell, the operation continued.
STRINGER / REUTERS
“We are trying to clear the melting snow in the tunnel, but it was difficult,” said rescue officer PK Tiwari. “We’re trying to use drones and other tools to get a clearer picture of the situation inside.”
Nearby, workers used heavy machinery to clear giant boulders from the road blocking the road to the second power plant, where 35 people were missing.
The plant was obliterated and is now a wasteland thickly covered with viscous gray mud. In a nearby village, four bodies were recovered, including that of a police officer.
Stories of survivors
One of them was 28-year-old Rajesh Kumar, who, along with others, clung to scaffolding bars in the tunnel for four hours before the water level dropped and they were able to escape.
“Suddenly there was a sound of whistling … there was screaming, people told us to come out. We thought it was a fire. We started running, but the water poured in. It was like a Hollywood. film, “Kumar told AFP. .
“We kept telling each other – no matter what, we shouldn’t let go of the bars,” he said from his hospital bed.
Shopkeeper Ramesh Negi was enjoying the Sunday morning sun when he heard a loud roar and saw a huge wall of water slamming into a bridge and fading away.
Dozens of riverbed workers and grazers who led their cattle down the mountain slopes disappeared under the sudden flood, he recalled.
“There was dust and screaming everywhere,” the 36-year-old told AFP.
Indo-Tibetan Border Police / AP
Mangra, another survivor, recalled hearing a loud rumbling noise and other colleagues shouting, “Run, run, run!”
The 28-year-old scrambled out of the tunnel, but six friends and neighbors from his village did not make it.
“It felt like the mountain was crashing and the earth was moving,” Mangra told AFP outside the tunnel, with cuts and scratches on his hands and legs.