Uttarakhand flash flood: Raini counts its lifeless, no street hyperlink for 13 villages to China border

AS DEBRIS and slush have been cleared from the Rishi Ganga energy plant web site close to Raini village, which bore the brunt of the flash flood in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, 4 our bodies and the stays of a fifth have been recovered Tuesday.
It was a grim reminder of the deluge that destroyed the plant two days in the past.
The space the place a water tank and a residential block stood was fully flattened, and a suspension bridge washed away, leaving 13 villages until the China border inaccessible by street. And, fears that one other flash flood might hit the world continued to maintain residents on tenterhooks.

Through Monday evening, nationwide and state catastrophe reduction forces and Border Road Organisation (BRO) personnel labored to clear a 100-metre path from the gate of Raini, the house of the Chipko motion within the Nineteen Seventies, to the place the plant was positioned.
“We had to stop for a while because we got inputs that there was a possibility of another avalanche. We started again on Monday evening and worked through the night. We have cleared a large rubble path. So far, we have found four bodies, and some remains,” mentioned Major Parashurama, who’s with the BRO and coordinating operations on the web site.
“We are not going very fast because we think there could be around 20-30 bodies under the rubble here. According to our initial reports, there were 20-25 people at the gate, and they were all submerged. We expect to find another 30-35 bodies further down where two three-storey residential buildings stood. The overall estimate is around 70 bodies at this site,” he mentioned.
According to senior NDRF officers, there’s little or no likelihood of discovering survivors.

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“The water and slush reached up to the villages located at a height. The power plant was much lower. We don’t think anyone down there is still alive. The recovery of bodies and clearance can take a few weeks. A lot of people are also coming in, looking for their relatives,” mentioned Mohsen Shahidi, DIG, NDRF.
The SDRF, in the meantime, is establishing a zipline between the villages of Raini and Raini Palli, which lies throughout the bridge that was destroyed.
“The line can be used if someone needs to be sent rations or medicines urgently. There is air support at present, but we can use the zipline in case there is an emergency. A relief camp is being set up at Raini Palli,” mentioned Navneet Singh, an SDRF official.
The state pressure can be coordinating a recce by drones. Drones with a capability to fly for half-hour and report footage have been despatched upstream to see if there was any lake formation that might threaten rescuers. Officials mentioned that no such formation has been detected to date.
By Tuesday night, BRO officers had cleared a number of metres of slush with not less than 4 excavators on the web site.
“We will continue working into the night. But reconnecting the villages is the priority. We are looking at different ways to do this, including a temporary suspension bridge,” mentioned a senior BRO official on the spot.The state pressure can be coordinating a recce by drones. Drones with a capability to fly for half-hour and report footage have been despatched upstream to see if there was any lake formation that might threaten rescuers. Officials mentioned that no such formation has been detected to date.
By Tuesday night, BRO officers had cleared a number of metres of slush with not less than 4 excavators on the web site.

“We will continue working into the night. But reconnecting the villages is the priority. We are looking at different ways to do this, including a temporary suspension bridge,” mentioned a senior BRO official on the spot.