Bashir Assad
Srinagar, Sept 6 : Owing to continuous rains, the villagers of Marhama are unable to bury their dead. In South Kashmir's Marhama village, two bodies are awaiting burial since Friday evening. Reports from the village say that the houses are cut off due to heavy floods, and families are not able to step out. Both deaths are stated to be natural. There are apprehensions that in inaccessible inundated areas, more such deaths may have taken place, where residents may be facing a similar dilemma. Nature has wreaked such havoc that the grief-stricken families cannot find anyone to condole the demise of their loved ones. The local media persons stationed in Srinagar's Press Enclave have been receiving hundreds of phone calls from cut-off areas, from north to south. In these areas the rescue teams, particularly of the Army, are finding it difficult to help. In other areas, the power shutdown has made the situation worse, with residents unable to charge their mobile phones and reach out for support. In hundreds of cases, employees who were in Srinagar for work have been stuck here.
Since all highways are blocked, they are not able to get out of the capital city. "My village, which is in South Kashmir, has been heavily flooded since four days. My wife was not able to reach home from office and is staying with a relative near our village. I am stuck in Srinagar, and only our old parents and children are at home. Since there is no electricity in the village, the phones have run out of battery and there is no communication either. It is indeed a very testing time for us," said Bashir Ahmad Darr, a government employee.
Those who are stuck in Srinagar say that even after the rains stop, they cannot reach their respective places for three to four days.
"We are praying to Allah to take care of our families through this tough period," added Darr. Meanwhile,entire houses have been washed off by the gushing flood waters. Till Friday evening, 45 houses had been completely washed off in a single village in south Kashmir. Sabzar Ahmad, who works in a public sector undertaking, said that today afternoon, his house in Hatiwara village in Pampore came crumbling down. "The flood water had entered our house today morning. Within hours, the water level rose to ten feet.
The water was rising so fast that we could not find time to even gather any essential belongings.
We rushed to high areas with our family members. In the afternoon, we saw that our house had been washed off," said Sabzar in tears. "We are a family of limited means, and we do not know how we will recoup with loss and cope in the severe winter," he said.
There may be thousands of such cases all over the valley where the flood waters have caused devastation. |
