Latest news from Ladakh
August 30, 2010
The Flood of 2010
A journal of devastation
Insistent rains have finally reached a critical mass here in Ladakh. Catastrophic floods rampaged through the capital city of Leh last night around 1am destroying roads, homes and causing unconfirmed deaths and injuries. August 6th was scheduled to be an enormous cultural event with the return of the incarnate Lama Bhakula Rimpoche to Leh in a vast motorcade over the highest motorable road in the world from Nubra Valley. Reports are that the main Nubra Valley city of Disket was flooded, so most likely many, many devotees and dignitaries who had assembled there for the motorcade are stranded or worse.
I just returned from Leh and have attached 8 very shocking photos. There are many, many devastated residential homes & buildings that are now under excavation to find any survivors. Reports from the scene estimate the death toll in the hundreds, but it is the first hours of the true nature of the catastrophe. Sonam Norboo Hospital is also very heavily damaged as well as All India Radio and both the mobile phone companies. The airport runway is damaged to some extent and all flights have been cancelled. We went out to see the runway from Spitok Monastery which overlooks it and it appears to not have been damaged structurally, but is covered in mud from flooding. All roads to Leh are blocked by the devastation and emergency crews working. It’s well and truly the biggest disaster that I or anyone else has seen in 25 years. Unbelievably, it is now 2pm in Ladakh and the thunder and lightening is starting yet again which might very well bring another wave of destruction. It’s worse than I can describe and might deteriorate if it rains again. All those planning on coming to Leh must now re- evaluate your travel plans. It will be significant time before anything resembling normality returns to Leh.
Local residents of the Tibetan village of Choglamsar carrying the dead and injured from thewreckage of their homes at dawn on the first day of the flood.
Leh
Crowds frantically digging in the collapsed buildings to try and rescue survivors
Total devastation in the wake of the flood water and mudslides
The hospital in Leh is flooded and severely damaged
All India Radio station was destroyed
The bus station was devastated
Cars were swept up by the force of the cold lava mudslide
August 8:
Please accept our exhausted gratitude for the concern and dedication to assist from everyone here in Ladakh. Let me give you a few quick updates.
1. The confirmed death toll is now 150. This is quite literally only scratching the surface of the tragic math. There are many small villages surrounding Leh that are now merely alluvial fans of mud, but teams can not get to them for lack of roads and stretched priorities in Leh. Sabu Village which is directly across from us here in Stok was the epicenter of the deluge and many are feared to have died and are buried under a mountain of mud.
2. All roads to Leh are still cut off except for one overland route that leads out of Stok and is open all the way to Spitok Monastery near the airport. The bridge across the Indus River is still up as of yesterday, but the water is gigantic and filled with mud, so one has no idea how long it will last. It is now the main thoroughfare for trucks and relief efforts.
3. 5 army planes landed yesterday at the repaired airport with disaster team and emergency medical and communication facilities, so hopefully that will continue.
4. I saw Eshey Tundup yesterday near the flooded, white water river that now flows through Leh. Lamdon School is structurally ok, but it is closed for the foreseeable future. Eshey has no idea how many of the students are directly affected by this catastrophe. All phone land lines, BSNL mobiles and 90% of internet connections are down and will not be repaired in the near future. I have a satellite internet connection here in Stok which is why I am able to get a line out.5. I have offered my Nepali team and all my trekking equipment to the Chief Executive Councilor for emergency shelter and today we are taking the entire show to Choglamsar or Sabu to set up a refugee camp for about 100. There is very little food supplies and fuel available until the Manali road opens, but at least we can get people out of the rain & mud and allow them to get some rest from the past 48 hours of unimaginable hell.
6. The weather report for the next 48 hours is for continued rain, so it’s getting down right cruel. The army has virtually occupied Leh with manpower and equipment, but the roads are blocked, flooded or too small for any major efforts yet. The main road between Stok > Leh is blocked in Choglamsar with a mountain of cold lava mud which undoubtedly is filled with heartbreak.
7. We can’t get around much because we only have the diesel in my two cars which is all we’ll get for some time. There are no petrol or diesel supplies until the road opens which is not likely for quite some time. I’ll keep you updated and try and send some additional photos later today.
Thanks again for everyone’s concern. We’re all ok and are blessed/lucky/grateful for being spared for the most part here in Stok, but Ladakh is now a sad world of hurt that will gratefully absorb all the compassion their extended family can share in the days, weeks and years to come.
Bent, but not broken ….
August 10
We have all had another unforgettable day here in Ladakh in the aftermath of the devastating flood of Aug. 6. Please let me bring you all up to date with developments and photographs:
1. The Principle of Lamdon School in Leh, Mr. Eshey Tundup, reports that several of his teaching staff and students have tragically perished in the floods. His anguish is compounded by the inability to contact most of his 1,500 students that are living throughout the greater Leh area because of the total breakdown of communication facilities. Doubt, worry and fear remain the constant companions of most Ladakhis as they search for relatives and essential others lost in the smoky haze of uncertainty.
Lamdon School principal Eshey Tundup inspects the damage done to the satellite Lamdon School campus located in the village of Shey
2. Lamdon School in Leh was spared the brunt of the flood waters, but the branch campus in the village of Shey was heavily damaged and is now entombed in 1>2m of mud. Only with the heroic efforts of teachers and volunteer international students living and working at the school were the 145 students evacuated in the middle of the night to higher ground. They are now staying in a chapel at Thiksey Monastery. The school must be extensively repaired or rebuilt.
Wallace Cuthbertson and Stephen Khalek, two gap year students from UWCSEA, played a heroic role in evacuating students from Lamdon School-Shey during the storm and subsequent flood
3. Leh airport is open and is handling both military flights bringing emergency supplies and personal and also the two primary commercial airlines Jet Airways and Kingfisher Air who are taking tourists and others out of Ladakh. The entire devastated community is appalled and disappointed in the decision of the airlines to exploit the situation and change enormously inflated prices for passage out of Leh. As both of the overland routes are closed due to flood damage, the only means of evacuation is by commercial flight and it’s indeed abhorrent that the airlines chose exorbitant profit over good will.
4. The main road to Leh leading through Choglamsar is now open, but the drive through the devastation is like a chapter in Cormac McCarthy’s apocalyptic novel “The Road”. There is utter devastation that recalls black and white footage of the last days of World War II. The 3>4 meters of impenetrable mud that entombs the entire Tibetan community living in forced exile from their homeland is the final resting place of hundreds yet to be discovered.
5. The Indian army is mobilizing an enormious effort to open the roads and restore essential services in Leh. There is still no communication facilities except the few mobile phones of the AirTel company. Water ironically is in very short supply and is being delivered to the entire population of Leh by two overtaxed tanker trucks. The main hospital is dysfunctional and is serving as a makeshift morgue. Most of the injured are bring taken to the army hospital which has opened it’s doors to the civilian population.
6. Foreigners remaining in Leh are volunteering in great numbers to assist rescue and recovery teams to move rubble and bring essential supplies to those in need.
7. Both of the main supply roads leading from Leh to Manali to the south and Srinagar to the west remain closed and supplies are dwindling. There is diesel available, but no petrol. Food commodities in the few shops open for business are also getting very low on stock. The army is pushing to open the Leh > Manali road which will help a great deal with bringing in supplies and also giving people wanting to leave an alternative to the extremely high prices being charged by the private airline companies for tickets to Delhi.
8. The incessant rains have mercifully abated and first phase of the tragedy has come to an end. Most everyone is now trying to digest the magnitude of the losses to life and property as well as their perspectives of only a few short days ago. Perhaps those who suffer the most are suffocating in uncertainty about the welfare of countless hundreds that are unaccounted for because of communication breakdown or worse. The clean-up and rebuilding process is too enormious to fully comprehend.
The Buddhist faithful of Ladakh are burning offerings of barley flour for the spirits of their lost or buried friends and relatives
Any hope of finding survivors in the mountains of rubble has passed. The grim task of locating bodies has begun
August 20
1. I sent a personal donation to the school account at State Bank of India in Leh last week. This was to get immediate funds to Lamdon for the short term needs of the students returning to school with little but the clothes on their backs. I am very pleased to let you all know that the wire transfer that I sent from HSBC bank in Singapore reached the Lamdon School account in Leh. That means that the bank has re-established basic wire transfer capabilities. We still need to be very mindful of the fragility of the connection, but the first wave of immediate relief can start to flow to Lamdon School. If/when any of you send funds, please let me know so that I can pass the specifics along to Eshey so he can confirm receiving the donation to the flood relief account at State Bank of India
2. I also passed along the update to Mr Eshey Tundup at Lamdon School that I had met with groups from the deep and wide ocean of Lamdon supporters and encouraged him to let his students and staff affected by the flood know that the financial cavalry is on the way. He was extremely relieved and grateful for this news.
3. The current status of students and staff at Lamdon is as follows:
A. Two teachers and their families were killed outright the night of the flood
B. Two students and their families were killed outright during the night of the flood
C. Over 50 of his day students are now homeless. Their family houses were either completely destroyed or are unsafe to live in. They are staying at friends, relatives or in tented camps set up by the army. This is unsustainable for the long term. Eshey has provided them with new school uniforms, books and suspended their tuition fees so that they can return to school. This is an enormous drain on the school budget and should be the immediate focus of our financial support. Eshey is going to compile a list of the students in this situation and we need to find sponsorship for them for the long term until their families are once again self-sufficient. This may very well take several years.
The principal of Lamdon School, Mr Eshey Tundup address the student body the first day back in session after the floods
D. Because of the military significance of Ladakh as well as to contrast the lack of government support for the flood victims in neighboring Pakistan, Leh has received several high level visits from politicians – including the Prime Minister.
There have been promises of very substantial financial assistance for infrastructure rehabilitation as well as loans, subsides and rebuilding of private homes. Because of the short building “window” of Ladakh, this is much easier said than done and Eshey believes it will be years before many of the people who have lost their homes and possessions completely will be back to anything resembling their lives prior to the flood. The government has assured the homeless they will provide them with adequate shelter before the winter, but has not proposed a workable plan to date. Like virtually all political promises made in front of the TV cameras, most Ladakhis know full well they must fend for themselves and not wait on the government to fulfill their promises.
I strongly believe we all need to back the strategies for the short and long term relief being proposed by the members of the Lamdon Social Welfare Society. Morup Namgyal has formed a flood relief committee and is personally directing the interviews and actions being taken.
E. There has been intermittent rain fall and the dormitories at Lamdon School-Shey are leaking and the young kids are afraid to sleep. Those buildings must be rebuilt next spring.
Lamdon School students helping to clean up their school after the flood
Many of the younger students are afraid to return to the damaged dormitories
F. The Manali road has been opened and some supplies are coming in, but the condition of the road changes daily and many truck drivers are hesitant to ply the road for fear of getting stuck in-between landslides.
G. The barley and wheat crops are very badly damaged and there is a severe shortage of laborers to harvest. One must consider it virtually lost for the most part, so many families that escaped the flood damage will now have major expenses replacing this primary food source for the winter months of November > April
H. Excavations and clean-up of the most heavily damaged sections of Leh as well as the entire community of Choglamsar is suspended so the limited equipment available can work on the roads and other essential infrastructure requirements. There has been little change in the casualty statistics because of this.
I. The radio station is now functional, but only to a limited degree. Communication and information distribution remain major obstacles to learning of the true extent of the disaster
J. The Sonam Norboo Hospital in Leh is still badly damaged from flood waters and most of the casualties are still at the army hospital.
K. All land lines and BSNL mobile phones are still completely down. Airtel is operating, but is so heavily over demanded that it is virtually dysfunctional. There are several internet cafes in Leh that have a satellite connection, but there is a 2 hour wait to use the terminals and the demand is overwhelming the network.
Once again, the Lamdon School account at State Bank of India-Leh is “operational”, so if there are any significant relief funds available, they can be sent immediately to the following account. If you let me know of any wire transfers sent, I will convey the specifics to Eshey Tundup. Confirmations will need to be verbal for the short term until internet facilities are re- established. I will bring back all hard copies of receipts and itemized accounting of donation distributions when I return from Ladakh in December.
Bill Kite
ladakhflood@gmail.com
Bank information for flood relief donations:
State Bank of India, Leh #1365
Leh, Ladakh 194101
J & K, India
Account name: Lamdon Senior Secondary School (Flood Relief Fund)
Account Number: 10942161101
Bank Swift Code: SBININ BB280
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