Monsoon Mayhem: 17 of Himachal Pradesh family among missing, toll 6

Rampur, August 2

While the toll has risen to six in the state, with 47 persons missing, Samej village was the worst hit, losing 36 people to flashfloods on Wednesday night. Too stunned to share their emotions after the calamity, people broke down in the arms of their relatives and friends, a day after the tragedy today. With the houses of several affected people swept away, along with their loved ones, people caught up with them on the streets of the village. At every corner, people could be seen sobbing or wailing, flinging themselves into one another’s arms. Not a single eye was dry.

Wayanad count 210

The death toll in Wayanad landslides has risen to 210 even as the Kerala Government has withdrawn its gag order asking scientists not to make their opinion public.

The biggest tragedy has befallen the Kedarta family – this extended family has lost 17 clan members in the devastating flashfloods. “Our family is destroyed. So many of us have been taken away by the flood. I don’t know how we will cope with this massive loss,” says Chander Kedarta, numb with grief. He lost his son, daughter-in-law and two young grandchildren on that fateful night. His son lived just about 50 m below his house on the Samej khud with his family. “They were swept away in their sleep,” he says.

A little further downstream, the house of his younger brother, Ravinder, was swept away, and along with it, his two daughters, studying in Classes X and XII. The girls were alone in the house, with their tenants on the ground floor. “We had gone to our other house in the village up the hill. The girls stayed back as they had to attend school the next day. We got a call when the flood struck, and reached the spot around 2 pm. However, there was nothing we could do to save them,” says the shattered father. The girls excelled in sports, says their maternal uncle. “They had been playing at the block and district level regularly.”

Yet another Kedarta family has lost a daughter-in-law and a young granddaughter. The devastated grandmother had been roaming around in the village, telling everyone how good the granddaughter was. “Where am I going to get such a wonderful granddaughter!” she sobs.

A pall of gloom has descended on the village. So overpowering is the sense of grief here that even those who escaped unscathed are devastated. “My house is safe but how am I going to live without people with whom I have lived all these years? The place is a graveyard now, how am I going to live here?” laments Anita, whose entire neighbourhood has been swept away.