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‘My hotel flowed away like a leaf': Uttarakhand man who was at temple when tragedy struck
Fortunately, the hotels in Dharali area were mostly empty due to low tourist footfall amid monsoon when the tragedy hit.
Uttarakhand’s Dharali village was one of the worst-hit areas when a cloudburst led to flash floods and mudslides in Uttarkashi on Tuesday. Among the many structures that were swept away in the floods on Tuesday — several horrifying videos of which are making rounds on social media — was a 40-room hotel run by a man named Jai Bhagwan. He narrowly escaped being caught up in the tragedy as he went to visit a nearby temple.
On Tuesday, when no one turned up to his hotel in the market area of Dharali, Bhagwan went to a nearby temple to celebrate a local festival, reported The Indian Express.
Around 1.40 pm, all hell broke loose on Dharali while a massive mudslide hit the town leading to panic and chaos among people, all the while Bhagwan was at the temple.
Also read: Uttarkashi flash floods: 50+ still missing, 190 rescued amid devastation | 10 latest updates
Describing what he witnessed to IE, Bhagwan said, “First, there was a thunderous sound, and then I heard people screaming from the village nearby. They were whistling too, but we were clueless. Then came massive waves of mud, water, and rocks.”
Unaware of the magnitude of the disaster, Bhagwan rushed to his home only to find out that the water had reached there as well. Later, he hurriedly went to Harsil village on foot.
His four-storey hotel was washed away in the mudslide, a video of which he saw later. “In the video, my hotel is seen being washed away. It was a 40-room hotel, but it flowed away like a leaf,” he said.
Also read: Battered infra hobbles rescue ops in Uttarakhand; many missing
Over the next few hours, Bhagwan kept calling his family to ensure that they were safe, however, they became unavailable after 4 pm on Tuesday.
Fortunately, the hotels in the area were mostly empty due to low tourist footfall amid monsoon, which are otherwise usually booked during the Char Dham yatra, according to Bhagwan.
“In other months, my hotel is completely booked when the Char Dham yatra is going on. Even my staff and nephew, who manages the hotel, were not present, fortunately,” the report quoted him as saying.
190 rescued, over 50 missing in Uttarkashi
The rescue operations in the flood-hit areas in Uttarkashi entered their third day on Thursday. So far, 190 people, which includes 11 army personnel, have been rescued from the Dharali area, according to officials. Over 50 people are still missing.
According to the NDRF North India Command Head Gambhir Chauhan, dog squads and veterinary doctors are being sent at the disaster site along with satellite phones as communication remains a challenge there. “It was a huge tragedy. SDRF, NDRF, ITBP, Army and local administration are involved in joint rescue efforts,” he told PTI.
