2023-10-07 09:08:33
GANGTOK, India (AP) — Rescuers found more bodies overnight as they searched through rubble and freezing water for more survivors of a glacial lake overflow at a dam in the Himalayas in northeastern India, sweeping away homes and buildings. bridges and forced thousands to flee.
Authorities reported that the hundreds of rescuers working in the area recovered six more bodies early Saturday, raising the official death toll to 47. At least 150 people remain missing.
The flood began in the early hours of Wednesday with the overflow of a mountain lake that broke the largest hydroelectric dam in the state of Sikkim. The icy water rushed into the valley towns, leaving dozens dead and carrying some bodies for miles. Some turned up in the neighboring state of West Bengal and Bangladesh, police said.
Police indicated that there are almost 4,000 tourists stranded in two towns, Lachung and Lachen, in the north of the state, and noted that access was severely restricted because floodwaters washed away roads. In addition, bad weather has made rescue efforts difficult and prevented authorities from mobilizing helicopters to help those trapped in vulnerable areas.
About 3,900 people have taken shelter in 26 camps set up by the state, Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang said on Saturday. Seven of the 22 soldiers reported missing have died, he added.
It was unclear what caused the flooding in the mountainous state, the latest to hit the country’s northeast in a year of unusually heavy monsoon rainfall. About 50 people were killed by flash floods and landslides in August in the neighboring state of Himachal Pradesh and record rains in the north claimed the lives of more than 100 people in two weeks in July.
Experts pointed to heavy downpours and a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck neighboring Nepal on Tuesday afternoon as possible factors.
But the disaster also draws attention to the climate controversy that pits local environmental activists, who claim that Himalayan dams are too dangerous, against authorities, who have the national renewable energy program in their sights.
The design and location of the six-year-old Teesta 3 dam have been controversial since its construction. A report prepared by the Sikkim State Disaster Management Agency in 2019 identified Lake Lhonak, for which it was built, as “highly vulnerable” to floods that could cause significant personal and material damage in lower areas, warning of the danger of flash floods that could overwhelm the walls.
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Hussain reported from Gauhati, India.
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