Victims await aid, news of loved ones stranded in floods

With the floods unleashing unprecedented destruction in Jammu and Kashmir, many who have lost all their belongings are yet to get any aid and face an uncertain future while others are waiting anxiously for news about their loved ones stranded in the deluge.
At numerous places in the Kashmir Valley, the story of the devastation is the same with help reaching late or not reaching at all.
"We appeal to the government to please help us. No boats are reaching us," a teary-eyed woman told mediapersons in the Kashmir University campus here.
A young student of the University said that "only select locations are being visited by rescue teams."

A number of residents, who have been evacuated from marooned areas, are anxious about the well-being of their family members left behind .
"I have come here from Ahmednagar. My family is in Golgibagh. No one (rescuers) is going there. I could hear children wailing for help there but they (rescuers) are only taking out VIPs. There are small children on roof tops there," another woman who was rescued on a boat said.

Teams of the NDRF and state disaster combat teams were moving around in flooded areas ferrying as many people as they could. The Army yesterday said that the rescue operations will pick up as the weather has cleared and its priority will be to first reach people who are in the most perilous conditions with no food and other basic amenities.

The IAF and Army aviation helicopters are making back-to-back sorties to air evacuate as many as possible.
"The situation is very bad. Water level has risen to about 10-feet in our rooms. All our belongings have got damaged. We are just getting food. College authorities are helping us but there is no external help.
"Water levels have receded but where would we go? There are a lot of students here but enough tents are not available in the camp. We were told we would be shifted only after tents are available," a group of students assembled in the NIT campus said.

An elderly lady, who had been rescued, said a number of houses were destroyed by flood waters in her locality.
"The houses have been destroyed because they were old. There are many still stranded and my husband is still there. We were three families. We crossed one house at a time and reached the terrace," the woman said.
Another woman accompanying here said she has not seen "such a situation in so many years."
"It is really scary," she said.
At many other places, victims complained about food and other essentials not reaching them while they are also were seen urging rescue teams to reach areas where no help has been sent till now.

"Only my husband and I have been rescued. Both my sons are left behind. My house was destroyed. I was stuck on the terrace for three days," a woman said.