Monday, July 1, 2013

India floods: 'Thousands still missing' in Uttarakhand

BBC: Nearly 3,000 people are still missing following floods and landslides which hit India's Uttarakhand state a fortnight ago, the chief minister of the state has said. More than 800 people are reported to have been killed so far but Vijay Bahuguna said the exact number of deaths may never be known.

Hundreds of people are still trapped in the Badrinath area, reports say. Some 100,000 people have already been evacuated from the flood-hit region.

This year's early monsoon rains in the Uttarakhand region are believed to be the heaviest in 80 years. Swollen rivers have swept away entire villages in the state, where there were many travellers in what is peak tourist season.

"We will never know the exact number of the dead and the number of people buried or washed away," Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna told the Press Trust of India news agency....

From a 2012 flood in Uttarakhand, shot by European Commission DG ECHO, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

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