SRINAGAR, India // Emergency workers battled on Tuesday to reach hundreds of thousands of people marooned by floods in India and Pakistan that have claimed more than 400 lives, as anger grew over the speed of the rescue effort.
The army said it was airlifting boats to the worst-hit areas of Indian Kashmir, where whole villages have been submerged and an estimated 400,000 people are stranded in the region’s worst flooding in 50 years.
“The situation in Kashmir Valley is still very grim, it is quite critical,” said Rajesh Kumar, police inspector general of the Jammu region in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state.
“There are many stuck in neck-deep water and need help as soon as possible,” he said.
But with large parts of the state underwater, rescuers were struggling to find enough vessels to ferry stranded people to safety.
But many Srinagar residents said they were left to fend for themselves when rescue workers failed to arrive.
One man was seen hanging precariously from a rope strung from one side of the raging waters to another – his only way of getting across.
Another, retired college teacher Abdul Latif Rather, said he and his wife had waited hours for help on Sunday as the waters engulfed their home.
Local boys eventually came to their rescue.
Indian authorities said the death toll from the floods was around 200 people. Some 400,000 people remain stranded mainly in Srinagar and south Kashmir, local officials said.
“There are still a few hundred thousand stranded in Srinagar [alone]. About 60-70 per cent of the city is flooded,” said Jammu divisional commissioner Shantmanu.
In neighbouring Pakistan the death toll stood at 206, with most killed in Punjab province.
Thousands of troops, police and other emergency personnel have been deployed in both countries to deliver drinking water, blankets and other relief supplies using helicopters and boats.
At a wedding hall on Srinagar’s outskirts, some 400 people gathered on the floor in small groups after floodwaters submerged their homes.
“Everything happened so fast. The waters came rushing and we didn’t have time to pack anything,” Ruqsat Banu said as she comforted her elderly in-laws.
“The [rescue workers] were prioritising people, they were taking the women and the children but the men were left behind,” said Ms Banu, who had to leave without her husband.
The military has stepped up its rescue efforts, with 42,500 people evacuated so far and 61 planes and helicopters pressed into action, the defence ministry said.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my lifetime. It’s unprecedented, everything is underwater,” 70-year-old S Nabi said as he watched the chaos around him.
* Agence France-Presse
