Srinagar: Heartrending tales of people facing the fury of river Jhelum have emerged four days after the city was submerged in deluge.
Till Friday, the people of Srinagar were hoping against hope that the Jhelum would not flood their houses, but that was not to be. People stayed awake for the whole night on Friday, hoping that the flood water would not touch their locality in Samerbugh and adjoining areas and would subside by Saturday morning.
In Pic: Rescue and relief operations in full swing
Many people, for the first time in their lives, heard the river Jhelum roar as its floodwater wreaked havoc on the city.
Most of the people settled on the banks of river Jhelum in Srinagar had hoped that the flood water would subside, but that was not to be.
The flood water started to rise right from Islamabad in south Kashmir and entered Srinagar, devastating the summer capital.
On Saturday morning, fresh rainfall began to ring bells of warning. "I saw waves of water coming from Jhelum sweeping across Sheer Bagh (another village), said Mukhtar Ahmed. He alongwith his family members, climbed on to the Nowgam-Pantha Chowk highway, which itself was flooded within hours.
As flood water swept Goolpur, Samurbugh, Rakh Shalin, Sheer Bagh and Batapora villages, people grew scary. “There were cries of help from everywhere. Women and children wept bitterly,” Dilshada Bano of Samerbugh told Greater Kashmir, a local daily.
By 10 am, the villages were flooded and the situation grew worse when the only link road connecting them with main Chowk submerged.
People watched helplessly as flood water inundated the ground floor of their houses.
“There are around 1500 households in these villages. Every house is a tale of destruction,” said Mukhtar Ahmad.
Women came out of their flooded houses, navigating through deep water, carrying children on their shoulders to safety.
By Saturday afternoon, as rains continued to pour on and on, young volunteers from affected areas and nearby areas including Nowgam joined hands to evacuate the trapped people, mostly women and children.
A woman, barefooted, with sandals in one hand and a child in her lap, was helped by volunteers to climb a steep slope supporting the bridge.
The slope was the only “track” left untouched by the flood fury and the volunteers formed a human chain on it to support the sufferers climb on the highway.
“Oh God! Save us,” the woman screamed, as tears rolled down her eyes. “Over 4000 people are still trapped in these villages,” she told Greater Kashmir.
More women followed her, climbing the slope and holding children by one hand and carrying household belongings in the other.
Dilnaz Bano of Shalin, who was rescued along with her son, cried aloud over the devastation caused by floods to her house.
“Everything is gone,” she cried. “My husband has not yet left the home as everything is lying shattered.”
Barely within half an hour, a large group of people, mostly children and women, rescued from the flood-hit villages, shivered under open skies on the highway amid rainfall.
The flood in Jhelum, Doodh Ganga and other water bodies across Kashmir which resulted from continuous rainfall for the past four days, killing people and destroying property, had now engulfed the entire stretch from Goolpur to Batpora.
“Where is the government? May they suffer the same fury,” shouted elderly Khatija, drenched in rain, as her four grandchildren huddled around her crying bitterly. “The authorities should have warned us in advance to leave.”
Not only locals, a large group of non-local laborers with their families assembled on the highway, wrapping themselves in polythene sheets.
A non-local, Lal Babu said he was rescued by locals and there was no help from government. He said Lasjan area, on the left side of the Jhelum bridge, along with Soitang and Padshahi Bagh were flooded on Friday.
“There was no government help to them as well,” Babu said. A couple of boats had been kept by the authorities to ferry the people trapped in Lasjan and its adjoining areas.
Says Abdul Samad in Samerbugh “By now the government should have brought boats and vehicles to rescue the trapped people".
A group of policemen deputed at the spot would occasionally look at the rescue operation undertaken by the volunteers and move away.
“The water level is rising and it will submerge the entire area up to Nowgam,” said Samad.
He, perhaps, was not aware that new residential colonies that have come up on the Nowgam road, ahead of Pohru Chowk, were already flooded.
Two boats were used by government forces to evacuate people from these houses as flood water had engulfed the ground floor of each building.
A walk on Nowgam-Pantha Chowk road gave a sense of flood destruction. The entire area on either side of the road was flooded and at some places only tree tops were visible.
The situation was no different in other areas situated on the peripheries of Srinagar.
Khan Mohalla, situated on the banks of Doodh Ganga in uptown Chanapora remains inundated for the fourth consecutive day.
“We called the district authorities and local MLA many times but there was no response,” said Muhammad Muzaffar, a local resident.
With no help arriving by late Saturday afternoon, the disappointed residents pooled up money to hire machinery to de-water the locality.
Though water had receded on Natipora-Rambagh road and its interiors, the flood had left behind a scene of devastation.
People were busy removing the mud and debris from their houses and shops.
In flood-hit Bemina, one of the worst affected areas in the city, “inadequate help” from the government left people fuming.
While people rescued from Hamdania Colony waited for flood water to recede so that they could return to their homes, in nearby localities people in their homes were anxiously waiting for help.
“Scores of people are still trapped in the interiors of Hamdania Colony as government has failed to provide boats for their evacuation,” said Qurat-ul-Ain Masoodi of Aash, a voluntary Trust working in Kashmir.
Masoodi said Aash along with the Indian Red Cross Society carried out relief and rescue operations in the area.
