JOSHIMATH, India (AP) – Hundreds of rescue workers were scouring mud-filled ravines and valleys in northern India on Tuesday in search of survivors after part of a Himalayan glacier broke, triggering a devastating flood that left at at least 31 dead and 165 absence of.
One of the rescue efforts is focused on a tunnel in a hydroelectric plant, where more than three dozen workers have been out of touch since Sunday’s flood. Rescuers used bulldozers and shovels to clean up the mud from the tunnel overnight, in an attempt to reach workers as hopes of survival faded.
The disaster started when part of a glacier on the Nanda Devi mountain broke on Sunday morning. Scientists went to the scene to investigate what caused the breakdown and the flood – possibly an avalanche or the release of accumulated water. Experts say climate change could be to blame, as warming glaciers are reducing glaciers and making them unstable around the world.
Floodwater, mud and boulders roared down the mountain along the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers, breaking dams, sweeping bridges and forcing the evacuation of many villages while transforming the countryside into what looked like a gray lunar landscape.
The flood swept through a small hydroelectric project and damaged a larger river downstream in Dhauliganga. Flowing from the Himalayan mountains, the two rivers meet before merging with the Ganges.
The power of the roaring water wall was first noticed by residents of several villages perched on the slopes of the valley.
Rajeev Semwal heard a sound similar to thunderous clouds and then watched the generally blue waters of Alaknanda become muddy.
“I understood that the disaster really happened,” said Semwal, a resident of the village of Tapovan in the state of Uttarakhand, where the plant is located.
Semwal’s brother-in-law and younger brother worked at the plant. His younger brother was inside the flooded tunnel and has not been heard from since.
Most of the missing are people working on both projects, part of many plants that the government is building on several rivers and their tributaries in the mountains of the state of Uttarakhand.
The ecologically sensitive region of the Himalayas is subject to floods and landslides.
More than 6,000 people are believed to have died in the floods in 2013, which were triggered by the strongest monsoon rains in decades.