Ron Brackett
Three days after a wall of water and debris entombed workers in a tunnel at a power plant project in northern India, rescuers continue to search for survivors.
From large excavators to handheld shovels, teams used every tool at their disposal on Tuesday to reach the 35 or so workers who have been trapped since floodwaters roared through a valley in the northern state of Uttarakhand on Sunday.
Heavy mud is blocking efforts to reach people inside the tunnel, but rescuers said they hoped to find people still alive, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s a very big challenge, but we are trying our best and with full strength,” said Aditya Pratap Singh, deputy commandant of the National Disaster Response Force.
The flood smashed through two dams, damaged two power plants and inundated villages in the Chamoli district below the Nanda Devi glacier. Scientists are investigating whether the flooding came from the glacier itself or whether it was caused by a landslide.
The death toll in the disaster climbed to at least 32 people on Tuesday, according to AP. Another 165 are missing, most of them workers at the power plants.
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Away from the plants, hundreds of other rescuers searched muddy ravines and along the banks of the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers in hopes of finding survivors.
In addition to the two hydroelectric plants, an unknown number of houses were destroyed and several bridges were washed away, the Indian Express reported.
About 13 villages have been cut off because of the destroyed bridges, the Times of India reported. Helicopters are flying supplies to them.
An aerial view shows one of the dams along a river in the Chamoli district in India's Uttarakhand state on Monday, February 8, 2021, that was damaged by a flood unleashed when part of a Himalayan glacier snapped off.It's unclear what exactly caused the flooding.
At first, scientists thought a lake that had formed on the Nanda Devi had burst. Now, satellite images indicate a landslide and avalanche were the more likely cause, according to the Associated Press.
It's not clear whether the landslide caused an avalanche of ice and debris, or whether falling ice resulted in the landslide, said Mohammad Farooq Azam, who studies glaciers at the Indian Institute of Technology at Indore.
Scientists want to know if friction in the landslide caused enough ice and snow to melt to create the flood that roared down the mountain.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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