Flash floods and landslides in northern India have killed at least 1,000 people in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in the past week, an official said Saturday, and with thousands missing or stranded the toll is expected to rise. Hit the Jump.
Describing the floods as a “national crisis,” Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told the Indian press on Saturday that 40,000 people were still stranded.
To aid the rescue efforts in the narrow mountainous valleys at altitudes as high as 11,000 feet above sea level, members of the Indian military have been pressed into service. By Saturday, the water levels of the flooded rivers and streams that run through the state had receded, but the floods have destroyed roads, bridges, electrical poles and communication networks.
More than 40 helicopters were being used to rescue pilgrims from remote mountainous areas, according to Indian officials, but the difficult terrain has hampered the rescue operations. A rescue helicopter crashed Friday while trying to evacuate trapped pilgrims in a village near Kedarnath. The pilot was injured, police officials told the Press Trust of India, the official news agency of India, and is being treated in a local hospital.
Families throughout India are frantically trying to locate their missing relatives.
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via NYTimes
