Floods Cause Devastation in India

Rescue workers in northern India on Thursday tried to reach thousands of people stranded by floods. At least 122 people have died in the states of Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh after the region received 14 inches of rain in the past week. For Uttrakhand, that is five times the normal average.

Nearly 4,000 people were trapped by landslides in a narrow valley in the northern Himalayas. Rescue workers used helicopters and climbed up mountain paths trying to reach them.

A state spokesman said authorities have been unable to reach eight villages in the worst-hit districts of Rudraprayag and Chamoli. They fear the villages may have been washed away.

The official death toll in Uttrakhand is 105. That figure does not include the hundreds of people in the villages rescuers cannot reach yet.

In Uttar Pradesh, collapsed homes killed an additional 17 people.

A joint army and air force operation has so far relocated nearly 14,000 people. However, nearly 61,000 people remain cut off.

The flooding washed away roads and nearly two dozen bridges. It demolished 365 houses and partially damaged 275 others in Uttrakhand.

Are these weather disasters normal? Or is there more to it? For the answers, read Why ‘Natural’ Disasters?