JOSHIMATH, India (AP) – Hundreds of rescue workers in northern India on Tuesday searched for gorges and valleys in search of survivors after part of a Himalayan glacier erupted and unleashed a devastating flood that killed at least 31 people died and 165 died. missing.
One of the rescue efforts focused on a tunnel at a hydroelectric power station where more than three dozen workers have been out of contact since the flood occurred Sunday. Rescuers used machine diggers and diggers to clear sludge from the tunnel overnight in an effort to reach the workers as hopes for their survival faded.
The disaster began when part of a glacier on Nanda Devi Mountain snapped off Sunday morning. Scientists went to the site to investigate what caused the break and the flood – possibly an avalanche or the release of accumulated water. Experts believe that climate change may be to blame, as warming of glaciers is shrinking and making the world unstable.
The floodwaters, mud and rocks roared down the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers along the mountain, breaking dams, sweeping away bridges and forcing the evacuation of many villages as it transformed the countryside into an ash-colored lunar landscape.
The flood swept away a small hydroelectric project and damaged a larger stream downstream of the Dhauliganga. The two rivers flow from the mountains of the Himalayas before merging with the Ganges River.
The power of the roaring wall of water was first noticed by residents of several villages sitting on the slopes of the valley.
Rajeev Semwal hears a sound similar to rumbling clouds and watches the usually blue waters of the Alaknanda become muddy.
“I understand that a disaster has indeed struck,” said Semwal, a resident of the town of Tapovan, in the state of Uttarakhand where the power station is located.
Semwal’s brother-in-law and younger brother both worked at the power station. His younger brother was inside the tunnel which was flooded and nothing has been heard since.
Most of the missing were people working on the two projects, part of many plants the government built on several rivers and their tributaries in the mountains of Uttarakhand state.
The ecologically sensitive region of the Himalayas is prone to flash floods and landslides.
It is believed that more than 6,000 people died in 2013 in floods, caused by the heaviest rains in decades.