UK Disaster June, 2013 ..... Use of UAVs

http://t.co/s00XNfzVUM

Uttarakhand: Rescue forces asked to survey remote areas with UAVs to look for those left out

Vishwa Mohan & Deeptiman Tiwary,TNN | Jun 29, 2013, 04.16AM IST 

All rescue forces have been asked to scan the areas once again with the help of choppers and UAVs in the next two-three days to ensure that no one is left unattended in any far-flung area.

NEW DELHI: With locals struggling for food and shelter in flood-hit Uttarakhand, the home ministry on Friday asked Indian Air Force to keep additional choppers to supply essential commodities to remote areas and airlift excavators for clearing boulders and debris accumulated in Kedarnath.

Besides, all rescue forces - IAF, Army, ITBP and NDRF - have been asked to scan the areas once again with the help of choppers and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the next two-three days to ensure that no one is left unattended in any far-flung area.

"Boulders and huge debris have accumulated at Kedarnath and we are planning to carry excavators onboard special Mi-26 helicopters to clear the debris there," vice-chairman of National Disaster Management Authority M Shashidhar Reddy said.

After returning from the flood-hit state, Reddy on Friday said places where rescue operations have been carried out will be surveyed again through UAVs.

A report sent by local authorities to the home ministry showed that 2,375 out of the 22,000 villages in the state were affected by floods. Out of them, 1,636 have been connected so far while the rest are yet to be connected.

As the whereabouts of an estimated 3,000 persons are not known, the home ministry - which termed the overall situation as "under control" — wrote to all states and Union Territories "to verify details of missing persons from their states/UTs who had recently visited Uttarakhand".

An official here said Army, IAF, ITBP and NDFR personnel would be withdrawn from the rain-ravaged areas only when each and every pilgrim and local was evacuated. The forces will move out after state government officials and medical/paramedical staff reach the affected 2,375 villages in adequate numbers to take responsibility of relief and rehabilitation, he added.

The home ministry also asked the NDRF team to provide technical support and manpower to clear out debris in Kedarnath. The team will provide additional manpower and technical support to local administration for clearing the debris.

"A team in charge of medical preparedness is in Dehradun along with top officials of the health ministry. Fifty doctors are currently on standby to go to affected areas in the shortest time. Some may be even required to stay there for the next 2-3 months during the rehabilitation phase," Reddy said, adding that no report of any kind of epidemic had been received so far.

UK Disaster June, 2013 ...... locals left in the lurch for days while rescuers were busy air-lifting the pilgrims

http://t.co/ku686nELQd

Uttarakhand: Key rescue operations to end today, focus on rehabilitation of locals

Vishwa Mohan, Bharti Jain & Deeptiman Tiwary,TNN | Jun 28, 2013, 04.35AM IST 

Official figures show that while 1,04,095 people were evacuated till Thursday, nearly 2,500 people were still in Badrinath and would be evacuated by Friday evening.

NEW DELHI: Rescue operations in flood-hit Uttarakhand will end on Friday. With armed and paramilitary forces hoping to complete evacuation of the remaining 1,829 pilgrims in the next 24 hours, the focus on Thursday shifted to relief and rehabilitation of 'locals' who have largely remained unattended in the past 11 days since the disaster struck on June 16.

Moving to the next big task, state government officials along with medical support teams from the Centre have already started dropping in at different places in the rain-ravaged areas carrying relief material and essential medicines.

As per preliminary official estimates, 2,232 houses, 154 bridges and 1,520 roads have been damaged due to the disaster which affected at least 16 lakh people in four districts — Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Garhwal.

"We hope that the rescue operation will be completed by Friday. The biggest challenge for the authorities is to look after displaced people," NDMA vice-chairman M Shashidhar Reddy said on Thursday.

Echoing Reddy's concerns, home secretary R K Singh said, "Our priority now is to ensure regular supply of essential commodities and establish communication links with all inaccessible villages and rehabilitate affected people."

He added, "In case a village is cut off and there are sick and infirm in need of medical attention, we will have them evacuated. We will also look for all missing people."

Though the official figure of missing persons still remains at 344, authorities believe that this could be much more as different control rooms and state websites continue to get queries from relatives and well-wishers about the whereabouts of their kin.

The home ministry - which on Thursday termed the overall situation as "under control" — wrote to chief secretaries of all states "to verify details of missing persons from their states who had recently visited Uttarakhand".

Official figures show that while 1,04,095 people were evacuated till Thursday evening, nearly 2,500 people including locals were still in Badrinath and would be evacuated by Friday evening. All pilgrims from Harsil have been evacuated. Only 100-150 locals remain in Harsil who need to be evacuated to safer places. Army chief General Bikram Singh will visit Uttarakhand on Friday to review the situation.

A home ministry official here said Army, IAF, ITBP and NDRF personnel would be withdrawn from the rain-ravaged areas only when the last pilgrim was evacuated. The forces will move out after state officials, medical and paramedical staff reach there in adequate numbers to take responsibility of relief and rehabilitation, he added.




The Centre, meanwhile, sent a three-member team comprising health ministry officials to Dehradun to review the public health situation with state health authorities.

"The Indian Red Cross Society has deployed a two-member team to Uttarkashi and another team to Pithoragarh. The IRCS has provided seven truckloads of relief material that include tents, family packs, kitchen sets, blankets and lanterns," a statement by the health ministry said.

"No outbreak of water borne/food borne/air borne or direct contact diseases have, so far, been reported from affected areas," it added.

According to the ministry, the state government has sought specified quantity of 60 drug and non-drug items and three truckloads of these medical supplies had been delivered. On the state's request, 10,00,000 chlorine tablets are being procured by the ministry.

"These items would be delivered to the state in the next two days," an official said.

UK Disaster June, 2013 ..... over 5,000 people 'presumed' dead

http://t.co/Jo7QhUfHOh

Uttarakhand floods: Identifying the dead proving to be a daunting task

Vishwa Mohan,TNN | Jun 27, 2013, 03.43AM IST 

The few photographs of the dead that have been put online by the Uttarakhand government are hardly even a fraction of the victims and in many cases features have been disfigured beyond recognition.

NEW DELHI: After saving most of those who survived the Uttarakhand floods, authorities are facing a daunting task in establishing identities of hundreds of bodies by way of photographs and DNA samples before consigning them to mass cremations.

The few photographs of the dead that have been put online by the Uttarakhand government are hardly even a fraction of the victims and in many cases features have been disfigured beyond recognition.

There is every possibility that the kin of the dead will have to deal with a statistic as they may not be able to make an identification.

Having concentrated in rescuing the living, authorities have not been able to pay much attention to bodies, many of which lay in the open or floated down the Ganga to be fished out in Haridwar or further downstream.

June 28 will mark the thirteenth day since the disaster, usually a significant date in terms of Hindu rituals performed after death. As many bodies will remain unidentified at the time of cremation, the government is likely to wait for a month before declaring a missing person as deceased.

The authorities are also banking on the pictures uploaded by relatives of missing persons on the websites of the state government, but matching these photographs with the ones in their possession seems equally difficult.

Though the state authorities have already started uploading certain basic details of the victims, officials believe that it is only a scientific-forensic test that will identify bodies.

In an interview to the TOI on Monday, Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna had said that 'tehsildars' will issue death certificates after a month. "If a person doesn't return in 30 days, the government will immediately release the compensation and not go by rules which state that you have to wait for seven years," he had told TOI.

An official said, "Team of medical staff has already collected DNA samples of most of the bodies. These samples will be preserved till the time their identities are established through matching it with the relatives. The local police have also finished the process of chronicling the details from legal point of view".

The Uttarakhand government has, meanwhile, put up a message board on the websites, asking relatives of the missing persons to provide them whatever information they can provide to trace them. The latest report put the figure of missing persons at 344.

The relatives of the victims had initially reported the missing complaints in thousands with Kedarnath - epicenter of devastation -- topping the list with 1,021 missing persons. Since the majority of them have already been traced, the total number now rests at 344.

"344 people are still missing. There are indications that the death toll may go up," said the NDMA vice chairman M Shashidhar Reddy, adding the rescue operation will, hopefully, be completed within a couple of days.

Reddy said efforts were being made to evacuate bodies under the debris - which are eight to ten feet high - in Kedarnath.........................http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMTMvMDYvMjcjQXIwMTYwNQ==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

UK Disaster June, 2013 ...... 20 brave ones lost their lives while saving thousands in the Kedarnath Valley

http://t.co/J6WYDNPxQV

http://t.co/wpbPzoMwI4

ITBP rescuers said goodbye to colleagues,were returning to camp

Vishwa Mohan,TNN | Jun 26, 2013, 01.56PM IST 

All these ITBP men who died were part of the first batch who had landed in Kedarnath area to rescue the pilgrims on June 16-17.

NEW DELHI: Fifteen out of 20 rescuers on board the ill-fated IAF MI-17-V5 chopper were the brave ITBP personnel who had just finished their mission on Tuesday and were heading for their camps so that a fresh batch of their colleagues could take their place.

But, fate had something else in store for them when they along with five Indian Air Force crew members sacrificed their lives after saving thousands of pilgrims in past nine days in flood-hit Uttarakhand.

Nine out of these 15 were part of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team. These nine ITBP men were posted with the NDRF on deputation.

List of missing ITBP, NDRF personnel

All these men were part of the first batch who had landed in Kedarnath area to rescue the pilgrims on June 16-17.

"They were returning after saving more than 20,000 lives of victims of disaster in Kedarnath area. The ITBP search and rescue teams are searching the area near crash site for survivors and bodies of martyrs", said ITBP spokesperson Deepak Pandey.

Out of these 15 personnel, six were from 8th ITBP Battalion (Gauchar). Since only 12 bodies have been recovered so far from the chopper crash site, the paramilitary force still count some of them as 'missing' keeping the hope alive amid the worst fear of losing all of them in the crash.

These ITBP personnel were from different parts of the country. While three of them were from Uttarakhand, others were from Assam, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Haryana and Karnataka.

An official said, "They all boarded the helicopter happily saying good bye to their colleagues on Tuesday afternoon as they were not supposed to join them. They had been there right there from day one, we had decided to replace them with other personnel for rest of the relief works", said a senior home ministry official.

He said, "Their act was truly an act of gallantry during peace time. Saving lives of thousands of persons in such a difficult situation was not an easy task".

Dead ITBP, NDRF men were first to reach Kedarnath

Deeptiman Tiwary, Vishwa Mohan & Bharti Jain,TNN | Jun 27, 2013, 04.07AM IST 

NEW DELHI: The 15-member ITBP-NDRF team feared dead along with five IAF personnel was one of the first to reach the Kedarnath temple site on June 18 after the deluge. And the last achievement they relayed back to the headquarters was, "Sir, we have also cleaned the temple of all the dead bodies, silt and muck."

Having evacuated every single survivor out of the valley, the nine-member NDRF and six-member ITBP teams were relieved of their duty on Tuesday after relentless rescue work over seven days where they lived, ate and slept with thousands of victims. Even under the nauseating stench of decomposing bodies and threat of contamination, they kept at their job.

Now, all that they leave behind is old parents forced to fend for a poor family, a young wife of just seven months of marriage and dilapidated homes that they promised to get repaired on return.

NDRF IG Sandeep Rai Rathore said, "They had worked tirelessly at the temple site sharing their own food with the victims and giving them medicines. They also cleared the area of all bodies to maintain the sanctity of the temple. In fact, only a day before the crash, they told me that they had even cleaned the temple as they did not like it with all the muck, silt and bodies."

For ITBP, it is an even greater loss given that the nine NDRF personnel were drawn from ITBP. Sources said some of the bright talents of the two forces were lost in the accident. It was this team that had played a crucial role in evacuation of over 20,000 pilgrims from Kedarnath valley. It was this team that had even caught some unscrupulous sadhus with over Rs 1.14 crore in cash suspected to have been stolen from the temple chest. It was this team that cleaned the site of bodies.

"It was their time to rest. Not rest in peace," said an ITBP official. The victims included NDRF's 48-year-old second-in-command Nitya Nand Gupta, a trained bomb expert and disaster management professional, who oversaw rescue operations in Kedarnath. ITBP sub-inspector Jayender Prasad, 55, who hailed from Tehri Garhwal and "looked at the rescue operation as a house chore", was decorated with 13 rewards and awards over his long career. Constable Sarvesh Kumar was a trained mountaineer from ITBP's Auli institute and "used his training to good effect".

"They were all well-trained and good boys. We are saddened, but our morale is still high. We will continue to rescue people," ITBP chief Ajay Chadha said.

For their families, the tragedy is difficult to surmount. NDRF constable Sanjeeva Kumar's cousin from Ballia in UP said, "He is the eldest in the family. We spoke to him on June 19 when he expressed concern about the house we are trying to build for the family. It was his dream to get his younger sister married into a good family. Everything has crashed with his death."

ITBP constable Jomon George's family in Alapuzha, Kerala, did not even know of their son's tragedy until it was flashed in the media. A neighbour of the family told TOI, "The family came to know through the media. It is shattered. We are told the force will officially inform the family by this evening."

Constable Sarvesh Kumar's family in Jhansi, UP, is beyond any consolation. "He was married only seven months ago. His wife is returning from her mother's house. Her life is ruined," Kumar's brother Arvind said.

There are still 26 ITBP personnel stationed in Kedarnath who will shortly be airlifted. But for them, it will be a sad farewell to Char Dham. Those who died had hugged them and said "goodbye". Little did anyone know it was their final one...........................http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMTMvMDYvMjcjQXIwMTYwNg==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

UK Disaster June, 2013 ..... rush to prevent outbreak of epidemic

http://t.co/lmrB8aRgV6

Uttarakhand floods: Epidemic looms as people complain of fever, diarrhoea

Deeptiman Tiwary & Vishwa Mohan,TNN | Jun 26, 2013, 03.43AM IST 

Authorities are now suspecting contamination of water resources in the area due to hundreds of decaying bodies spread across the valley.

NEW DELHI: The fear of an epidemic outbreak in flood-ravaged areas of Uttarakhand may be turning into reality as hundreds of people from local villages reported to medical camps set up by the forces complaining of fever, diarrhoea and vomiting. At least 128 people reported high temperature and gastro-intestinal infections in Ramnagar — a tiny village near Guptkashi in Kedarnath valley — through Monday and Tuesday. Three ITBP men engaged in rescue work in Kedarnath have also reported sick.

Authorities are now suspecting contamination of water resources in the area due to hundreds of decaying bodies spread across the valley.

Although medical camps set up by ITBP, NDRF and armed forces are already helping victims with medicines, the Centre is sending a high-level team comprising doctors and specialists to Uttarakhand to review public health measures.

Though the situation is not being seen by the government as alarming as no outbreak of water/air borne or direct contact diseases has been reported so far, cases of diarrhoea in areas such as Alwalpur (Haridwar), Udvi (Uuttakashi) and Chandrapuri (Rudraprayag) have been brought to the notice of local medical support teams. The government, however, claims to have managed them at "incipient stage" after picking up early warning signals.

The situation in Kedarnath is worrisome. "In the past two days alone, 128 people have reported water-borne diseases from one small village in Guptkashi. It seems the water in the area has been contaminated," an NDRF official told TOI.

Most of the victims are local villagers who depend on natural springs for drinking water. "There are so many bodies across the Kedarnath valley that it is not surprising that their decay is causing contamination of water. It needs to be contained now or we could have a bigger problem at hand," an ITBP official said.




To stem the contamination, forces are not only helping willing villagers to leave the valley even as government is rushing in medicines and chlorine tablets but NDRF is also assisting in mass cremation. "We have sent a team with specialized equipment such as cutters and pulleys to help state authorities extricate bodies from under the debris and cremate them," NDRF IG Sandeep Rai Rathore said.

Speaking of health concerns in affected areas, a home ministry official said, "Three central public health teams are already there. They have been coordinating with doctors and taking all required measures to prevent outbreak of any disease in a situation which is certainly quite vulnerable."

He said district units of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) were conducting health surveillance in all affected districts. Eight additional teams were kept on standby, ready to move to the affected areas at short notice, he added.

Besides, a specialist from National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme has been placed with the state government for providing assistance on matters pertaining to vector borne diseases. Three teams for providing psycho-social support have been arranged from NIMHANS, Bangalore.

"Over 10,00,000 chlorine tablets are being procured by the ministry of health for the flood-hit areas in Uttarakhand", said the official..........................http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDEzLzA2LzI2I0FyMDE1MDI=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

UK Disaster June, 2013 ...... worst is over .... it took seven days to bring situation under control

http://t.co/DOGwv1Q2dG

Uttarakhand: Only 6,000 people left to be rescued

Deeptiman Tiwary, Vishwa Mohan & Bharti Jain,TNN | Jun 25, 2013, 06.18AM IST 

 .....

Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate 4,000 people to safer places using rope bridges.

NEW DELHI: After being at their wit's end for a week, rescuing over 84,000 survivors across flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the authorities finally appeared to be in control of the situation on Monday with none of the 6,000 still stranded in a life-threatening condition.

Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate 4,000 people to safer places using rope bridges. Even the 6,000 still stuck, mostly in Badrinath, are safe and equipped with enough food and shelter arranged by rescue forces.

"The worst is over now. All are safe in Badrinath, Harsil and Gangotri. Army, ITBP and NDRF are present there. It will take 2-3 days to finish the rescue work. Kedarnath valley is almost evacuated," Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna said.

Speaking of the rescue operations over the past few days, Bahuguna told TOI, "Initially we had small airplanes of the state government and then the big aircraft of the IAF arrived. We have evacuated about 4,000 people from Kedarnath and Gaurikund. Now less than 100 people are left in Garur Chatti. The choppers are constantly bringing people. From tomorrow, NDRF will start combing operations on foot. NDRF and Army jawans have reached everywhere. Wherever people are stranded, be it Kedarnath, Harsil, Gangotri, there is Army and civilian presence. There is man-to-man contact. It is not that they have been left to the mercy of nature. Now mobiles are working in Badrinath."

Despite climate-related hurdles, opening new trek routes and adding more rope-bridges over the Alaknanda, forces managed to rescue close to 4,000 people stranded in various parts of the Char Dham religious circuit.

Now, only 6,000 remain stuck in Badrinath, Gangotri and Harsil even as Kedarnath, worst affected by floods, has been declared clear of all pilgrims and locals. Only 50-odd sadhus and mule owners, some of whom were caught with money stolen from the temple chest, remain in Kedarnath in the custody of forces.

Though rains are forecast for the next three days and fresh landslides have already blocked some recently opened roads, authorities are not too worried as all stranded people have been reached and are being provided food, shelter and medical care.

To ensure quick evacuation by road as air operations remain suspended, ITBP has added two more rope bridges over Alaknanda. Close to 500 people were also evacuated from Govindghat by vehicles and taken to Rishikesh via Joshimath. The force also rescued 267 people from Maneri in Uttarkashi. About 150 people are still stranded there.

Army, meanwhile, rescued 1,375 people from Badrinath and Harsil, the only place where air evacuation was carried out in the morning. While 1,463 people were airlifted from Harsil by Army and the Air Force, 1,340 are reportedly still stuck there.

"Weather is expected to remain bad but there could be small windows for air evacuation. However, since people are now stranded in areas where trek routes and roads can be created we will continue evacuation on foot and through vehicles tomorrow and day after. BRO is already clearing some landslide sites," ITBP chief Ajay Chadha said.

Amid hope, there is also the gloom of dead bodies spread across the kedarnath valley. Although counting of the dead has not yet started, ITBP and NDRF have together found 394 dead bodies in the valley. Sources said some of those among the 50 Sadhus and mule owners left behind in Kedarnath were found to be carrying Rs 1.14 crore in cash apart from jewellery. While the cash is suspected to be belonging to temple, the jewellery seems to have been stolen from the dead, sources said.

UK Disaster June - July, 2013 ....... let it be a joint effort to fight this tragedy

http://t.co/JY0eBbqVxc

Uttarakhand: No unilateral rescue work by states

Vishwa Mohan & Bharti Jain,TNN | Jun 25, 2013, 06.36AM IST 

NEW DELHI: Keeping in mind the operational difficulties, states which have come forward to join the relief and rescue operations in Uttarakhand will have to put their resources at the disposal of the state government, which will then decide on their deployment. Also, VIPs will not get landing permission in areas where their presence may hamper rescue work.

"We advise all VIPs not to visit Uttarakhand now. All agencies are engaged in relief and rescue efforts... Such visits hamper their work," home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Monday.

He told reporters that no VIP would be given landing permission in the flood-ravaged areas of the state.

Incidentally, Shinde's advice came on a day when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi reached the disaster-hit state. Officials, however, said the visit till Dehradun would not be a problem, indicating that such visits will continue provided the VIPs do not go to the places where relief work is going on.

"VIPs are not going to those areas where people are stranded. They just make an aerial visit and go back. They are also not using the helipad made for rescue work," Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna was quoted as saying on Monday.

A number of VIPs have visited Uttarakhand in the past one week. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi made an aerial assessment, while Shinde, chief ministers Narendra Modi (Gujarat), B S Hooda (Haryana), Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan) and Prithviraj Chavan (Maharashtra) visited the state to review relief operations.

The decision to restrict states from carrying out relief works on their own was taken on Monday in the backdrop of certain concerns expressed by armed and paramilitary personnel who found it difficult to operate smoothly due to constant interference caused by state officials. They complained during review meeting that the individual states were more concerned about rescuing people of their own domicile, unlike Army, IAF, ITBP and NDRF personnel who treat each and every person equally.

"There has been confusion after some state governments took separate initiatives to rescue their own people. From now onwards, there will be single coordination channel which will be monitored by the Uttarakhand government for rescue operations," a senior home ministry official said.

A number of states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana among others had sent their officials to Uttarakhand for relief works in the past one week. There have also been instances where various state government choppers engaged in relief works limited themselves to rescuing their "own people" and refusing to airlift people from other states.

Taking this in view, the Uttarakhand government has now made it clear that if any state government wants to send helicopters or other mode of transport, they should send them to the state government which will make its best efforts to rescue the people of that state.

"The Uttarakhand government will have the exclusive mandate to operate these choppers and decide on their deployment. Clear directions have now been issued to bring choppers from other states under a single agency - the Uttarakhand government - which will ensure their optimal deployment," said the official.

With reports indicating that private taxi operators are charging exorbitant fares to transport the stranded from Guptakashi and Joshimath, the Centre has advised the Uttarakhand government to take these taxis under its wing and ensure that a regulated fare is paid to the operators.