BY OSABUOHIEN VIVIAN ROSE
Flash floods have swept through a Himalayan village in northern India, killing at least four people and leaving more than 100 missing, according to officials.
A surge of flood water ran through a mountainous village in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand Tuesday, leaving at least four people dead and many others missing, officials say.
Footage from the Himalayan village of Dharali shows the wall of water, mud and debris tearing down the mountainside and through the village, destroying the homes and businesses in its path. The flooding occurred around 1:45 p.m. local time, according to Uttarkashi District Magistrate Prashant Arya.
At least 20 people have been rescued and search is underway for the missing, Lt. Col. Manish Shrivastava, a defense spokesperson in Uttarakhand, said shortly after the disaster Tuesday.
Dozens of people could be trapped or missing and many homes have been washed away, disaster response officials have said. Authorities are trying to pin down the exact number of people missing or still in need of rescue. Arya said around a dozen hotels were washed away in Tuesday’s flood, the Associated Press reported.
Arya suggested the flood that devastated Dharali was set off by a sudden bout of heavy rain, also called a cloudburst. “There’s a river there and because of the cloudburst, a lot of water came suddenly,” Arya said.
The India Meteorological Department defines a cloudburst as having a rainfall rate over 100 mm (4 inches) per hour.
Cloudbursts can cause severe damage and destruction as incredible amounts of water are funneled through the mountains and valleys and into villages in a short period of time.
India’s Meteorological Department had their highest level of warnings in place for “extremely heavy” rainfall across Uttarakhand. Some portions of the state, which is especially prone to flooding, received as much as 300 mm (12 inches) in the 24 hours through Tuesday morning.
India receives the majority of its annual rainfall during the Southwest Monsoon, which lasts from June through September. Agriculture and livelihoods depend on the heavy summer storms, but the storms can also bring such torrential downpours and flooding that the infrastructure in the region can’t handle.
