UTTARKASHI, Aug 9: Helicopters made multiple sorties on Saturday to evacuate people from areas surrounding the disaster-hit Dharali in Uttarkashi as rescue operations entered the fifth day with the thrust on improving road connectivity and supplying food packets to the affected people.
SDRF’s dog squad walked through dilapidated buildings swamped with rubble in search of those who went missing after the devastating mudslide in Kheer Ganga on Tuesday tore through Dharali bazar razing hotels and homestays to the ground and swept away all that came in its way killing people and leaving behind a trail of destruction.
The SDRF is searching for people trapped under the debris in Dharali by conducting a thorough search in the damaged buildings with the help of state-of-the-art equipment like victim locating and thermal imaging cameras and a dog squad.The district administration has confirmed four deaths in the tragedy, recovery of two bodies and 49 people going missing since the disaster.The IAF’s Chinook and Ai-17 helicopters besides those of Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Authority began making sorties from early morning to rescue people taking shelter in various locations of the district.
By Saturday evening since the start of evacuation on Wednesday, more than 1,000 people were airlifted from around Dharali and Harsil where an army camp had also suffered damages in the flashflood leaving nine of its personnel missing.
A resident of Harshil said that on the evening of August 5, due to accumulation of a huge amount of debris at the Mandakini Ghat, the flow of the river was affected. Work on the construction of a Bailey bridge at Linchigad near Gangnani went on a war footing to improve road connectivity to the affected areas. It is likely to be ready by Sunday evening, Garhwal Commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey said.
A Bailey bridge is a kind of modular bridge that can be quickly assembled with pre-built parts.
The Gangotri highway is blocked or breached at several points hampering efforts to transport advanced equipment required to search for the missing through tonnes of debris lying on the flash flood-ravaged site. (PTI)
