Indian floods kill 31

Ice-cold floodwaters swept through mountain towns in India’s Himalayan northeast, killing at least 31 people, washing away houses and bridges, and forcing thousands of people to leave their homes, officials said yesterday.

The flood began on Thursday, when the waters of a glacial lake overflowed, cracking open Sikkim State’s biggest hydroelectric dam and then cascading through towns in the valley below.

It was the latest deadly flood to hit northeast India in a year of unusually heavy monsoon rains. Nearly 50 people died in flash floods and landslides in August in nearby Himachal Pradesh state, record rains in July killed more than 100 people over two weeks in northern India.

More than 2000 people were rescued after this week’s floods, the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority said.

Rescue workers were still searching for nearly 100 missing people, including 22 soldiers, according to the Sikkim state government.

Vinay Bhushan Pathak, the state’s top bureaucrat, said that 26 people had been taken to hospitals with injuries, while nearly 3000 tourists were stranded in the flood-hit areas along with 700 taxi drivers.

“We are evacuating them through helicopters provided by the army and the air force,” he said.

The South Llonak Lake has been rising in recent years as a warming climate melts the glaciers that feed it, putting pressure on the dam that contains it, but it wasn’t clear what triggered the breach on Thursday.

Experts and varying government reports have pointed to sudden, intense rains in the area, and a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck nearby Nepal on Wednesday.

Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in India’s Himalayan region during the JuneSeptember monsoon season.