Dozens killed in Leh cloudburst, flash floods

Read the weather forecast first : there is a severe weather warning for the next 48 hours , and after that ... worse.

What a horrible thing to have happened in one of the Earth's most beautiful places!

Although the terrain of Ladakh is often described as barren and unforgiving, it is rendered incredibly hospitable by the warmth of the people there.

Does anyone have word on destruction to monasteries and stupas? I can easily imagine the damage to so many buildings built of mud construction.

I'm concerned not only for the loss of human life but for that of the cultural heritage of the region that contains some of the last authentic remnants of the Himalayan traditions.

R.

The locals would now like to go in for cement and brick houses instead of the mud houses which up-till now were great for them, and great for us .. now that would sure change the look and feel of Leh town to an extent.. what's gone in the floods wouldn't be coming back up the same way, I guess, for although those charming mud houses are great for us, they're no longer great for them

I have been very saddened by the catastrophe in Ladakh. Ladakh is my favorite place on Earth, and I have been to many wonderful places. Ladakh is in my heart. There is a charitable organization that I donate to there, called the Mahabodhi International Meditation Center.

Here is their website: http://www.mahabodhi-ladakh.org/

Here is a link to their current efforts: http://www.mahabodhi-ladakh.org/?New...itation_Centre

and photos from their efforts: http://www.mahabodhi-ladakh.org/?Pho...ar_Relief_Work

and a link to their donations page. http://www.mahabodhi-ladakh.org/?Spo..._Donation_Form
When you make a donation to them, you have to do it via a bank transfer.

I sent a letter, asking how I can make further donations for the current crisis, and here is the response I received:

"Dear Marius,

Thank you very much for your kind mail.

This is a greatest human tragedy in the history of Ladakh. The beautiful and
peaceful land has been reduced to dreadful graveyard and ground of debris. The
relief committee of Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre under my
chairmanship committed to extend of our helping hand to those who are more
deserving and worst affected families. The government of India, State government
and other agencies including army and paramilitary forces are providing basic
requirement in the form of food, clothing, tens, medicines etc. Our earlier
experience in Gujarat Earthquake in the year 2001 where we constructed a
beautiful girls hostel, Kashmir earthquake in the year 2005 where we constructed
28 huts and also flood in Ladakh in the year 2006 where we constructed 10 houses
and livelihood shops at Phyang village and Nubra region shows that most useful
is to construct houses or shelter to most affected families prior to winter sets
in. The relief work will be carried
out with consultation of civil authorities in the areas beyond Mahabodhi.

The flood also caused destruction and damage to the properties of Mahabodhi viz
Old Aged Home, girls hostel, hospital and plantation and agricultural land.

It is indeed would be great virtue and merit if our benevolent well wishers
intend to send contribution. Please specify the purpose for which contribution
is made that is either for restoration of MIMC please mention as "Flood Relief
Project in Mahabodhi" or for reconstruction of houses of flood affected areas of
Ladakh as "Flood Relief Project in Ladakh". Foreign friends may kindly send to
our bank account number: 0-412501-004 of Mahabodhi International Meditation
Centre with Citibank NA., Jeevan Bharti Building, 124, Connaught Circus, New
Delhi – 110001, INDIA. Bank Swift Code is CITIINBX

I, on behalf of all the staffs, members and residents of old age home, blind
home, boys and girls hostels, monastery and nunnery of Mahabodhi Int’l
Meditation Centre and the people of Ladakh and my own behalf would like to
express our heartfelt thanks and gratitude for your generous support in this
time of grave crisis and human tragedy.

With kind regards,

Yours in the service of humanity,
Bhikkhu Sanghasena"

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for your posts, especially those of you who were there to experience the flash floods. My 18 year old son and his girlfriend are in Leh now. They were there for the flooding and have been helping with the effort. I received one e-mail from him on Sat. night telling me he was okay and the following evening his girlfriend called her mom to tell her she was okay. Of course, I'm scared for them and am so thankful they are alive and weren't buried by the flood. We are waiting for communication from them and hope they can leave soon.

I checked the kingfisher website to see about flights and it looks like the next available flight is on Saturday and the price was about 530 US dollars for two one way tickets!!!! Okay, that is crazy expensive and way above the usual rate. I had heard that the airlines had jacked up their prices in the face of the calamity and the government called them on their actions and they lowered the prices. For the price listed above, it seems way more than what it should be! It seems as if they should be helping folks get out rather than take advantage of the situation. I read some news online that the usual one flight a day has now gone up to 6 to 9 flights a day. Can anyone tell me what other airlines fly out of Leh besides Kingfisher?

For those of you who posted there was disease spreading there, do you know that is for certain? That is what is truly worrying me!

I will share the relevant parts that he wrote to me to share the info, please keep in mind this is my 18 year old by writing fast after waiting for an hour and a half to send an e-mail, so the grammar nots so correct (for those of you concerned about that sort of thing!): This was written on Aug. 7

Hey mom im just writing to let you know that currently we are stuck in ladakh as there was a huge storm that hit several days ago then the next day there was a flood and many many many many many people died atleast 300-500 i have heard 1000 and higher. The past two days we have spent helping clean things up creating damns with sandbags and rocks to save current houses and digging up rubble by hand and with shovels using fireman sort of trains or whatever they are called. I will see if i can get you a scarf but currently we are having a little trouble seeing as we are stuck here and the earliest we will leave is in a week possibly two hopefully we will be able to get back but the road is currently out of the question and flights are booked weeks in advance if you could call the american embassy and start bugging them because this sort of this hasnt happened in leh for around 80 years. i had to wait an hour atlerast in line and 30 minutes just to get yahoo to work because there is no electricity so if there is anything running its because of generators. the storm was the most amazing storm ive been in with lightening atleast once every 3-5 seconds and hail and buckets of rain while it almost never rains people were in their mudbrick houses and washed away with that. I am exhausted from working so yoday i believe i will take it easy or something like that anyways hope all is well and bug the american government embasy to get off their asses because almost every other government has signs up having a number to call or a place to talk to officals but we do not and possibly we could get out of here sooner or something i suggest looking up ladakh and we are very glad we did not go trekking as we would have been washed away one night we spent until 12 waiting at friends' guesthouse because the river rose to such an extent that it collapsed part of the roads and ruinned many farmers fields. ANyways give my best to all and yeah look up stuff on the disaster because there has been all sorts of news crews here, the extent of damage is tremendous i thought you would be worried and had heard about it.

If anyone has any other current news (i'm on the web looking myself) or is there and manages to get online i would so love to hear about it as i'm very worried about them..

Thank you, my heart and prayers go out to everyone suffering from this...

Tara

Rajiv,
I know that the 1000 year old Tabo monastery revered by HH the Dalai Lama is in danger. The Tabo nullah has already washed away almost 15 acres of precious orchards and crops. Hopefully the rain stops or the monastery is in more danger of eroding. Spiti is a mess right now with many roads and bridges washed out.

Om Mani Padme Hum

23 foreigners dead as death toll tops 170 in Leh

Must be very difficult for you right now, no. (I know my poor old mom would have had a heart attack even knowing I was in fact in Tamil Nadu at the time! It is just difficult, isn't it.) Thanks for sharing your son's info, and for, well, having the courage to pitch in here and ask. That alone will not have been easy.

What can I say; I'd try and find a way to find some comfort in that they've called in and let you know they're alright. (And kudos to them for stepping right in with the relief effort, btw!)

I'm sure they'll be aware right now of further danger signs, regarding the weather, and hopefully regarding the possibility of diseases as well. They also surely won't be alone, but with both locals and fellow tourists, no doubt.

Keeping in touch with home from India can be difficult at the best of times; what with power cuts, iffy phone connections, ditto web connections taking forever, and whatnot. I'm sure they'll try to keep you posted when they can.

But, well, that's all easily said from the safety of my Dutch home. But as a word of encouragement, then, as well as of acknowledgement, that you have been heard. They sound like some good kids with their heart in the right place (also for letting the home front know when they could); I'm sure they're doing a good job out there right now.

Don't hesitate to be in with further questions, or just sharing your thoughts, and all.

There's also Jet Airways and Indian Airlines.

Objectively, I don't think these elevated prices are caused directly by the latest floods. This is ordinary practice right before the flight occurs. You can mention about the same price at the opposite direction (Delhi to Leh) for flights that depart in the coming days. It's hard to believe that the airlines deliberately inflate prices for flights INTO the area of disaster.

Good to know that your son and his gf are OK now!

Does anyone have more info about the situation in Spiti? My wife and I thought of it as an alternative for our planned trip to Leh in the end of August/early September...

Thank you Machadinha for your response, it was very comforting to read.. Yes, we moms tend to get carried away with worry for our kids, it's easy to let our minds wander away with fear. You are right though, they have good heads on their shoulders and the fact that they contacted us as soon as they could means they are on it. It's just hard not to know how they are and when they will leave, etc. It's hard to not have contact.

I was in India for two weeks for the first leg of his journey, which was amazing to travel with my son, by the way! I know how communication is there so i'm sure the flood makes it ten times worse.. I can only imagine.

They have quite the group of friends there apparently made up of older friends so i take comfort in knowing they aren't alone and have some guidance from older folks there.

Thanks for hearing me and responding, i appreciate you reaching out...

Alexh666, thanks also for your response regarding flights. I had a chance later on today to research other flights and discovered that india air is MUCH cheaper. For both the airlines i researched flights weren't available till the weekend. India air was about $150 us dollars one way to delhi which was a relief to find, i think that is the more usual fare. Now all i need to do is to hear from them so they can get flights out, etc! That's a good idea to check on fares going in the opposite direction.

Thanks for your support.. I'm keeping up the faith even though i'm shaken with worry for them... Tara

You just hang in there, Tara-mom, and I hope they'll be in with further word soon. (Do let us know, too, how it all worked out, when this is all over. And not before that, you'll have enough on your mind. Are they members here, btw?) I don't know about their finances (nor about local mobile network availability at the moment -- could well be up the creek, of course), but you could urge them to get a cellphone? They could just pop you a brief call now and then, it's not expensive either to call from there; cheaper by cellphone than by public phone, in fact. But that may well be all or largely down, of course. And then its acquisition will cost them some. (And assuming they were planning to travel further, it could prove a hassle to figure out what works nation-wide and blah blah. I imagine they may have other things on their mind.) It was just a natural thought; and from one who is normally averse to cellphones himself, so I can relate to not having that sort of communication lines open.

I had a brief glance at your post history yes and figured you'd started this trip together; now something like this, eh. Sheesh

Well, hang in there, and if you need a word of comfort, this board will be here to listen to you, OK?

Looking at your home location I could answer you in Hebrew but the official language of this site is English

There's latest information about Spiti at the neighboring Himachal Pradesh forum. As you can read, situation there is better but at the Southern part, where road goes close to the Sutlej river there's also certain danger because of floods. Look at http://www.bcmtouring.com/forum/indi...52/#post311848
Besides, there's information about some village in Spiti valley that's in danger, and has to be moved entirely because of floods. There's some 500 years old mummy of a monk there, its destiny is still unknown.

There are great places like Ki, Dhankar and Tabo on that route. Starting from Tabo towards Shimla you need the inner line permit that you may get at Kaza (or in the opposite direction from Shimla/Rekong Peo). It's the section of road between Tabo and Rekong Peo that seems most problematic. An alternative is to start from Manali and return to Manali. But in this case you have to cross Rothang pass twice and Kunzum pass twice. These passes are also problematic from the standpoint of weather (well, this year there are no non-problematic passes ). There's also an option to visit Chandratal lake next to Kunzum if weather permits.

I'm in the similar situation as you because I was planning a trip to Ladakh in September, during Sukkoth, etc. I will wait in Manali until the last moment to check out what the situation is, and, unless it becomes clear it's possible to visit Ladakh by then, will also consider Spiti valley instead.

There was a severe weather warning , talking of heavy rainfall in J&K and Himachal for the next 48 hours , issued yesterday . Kargil district weather forecast projects heavy rains , peaking on the 14th with 72 millimeters. Expect the situation on Srinagar-Leh to get worse , not better , this week.

thanks for the detailed answer. So I guess we'll just wait and see what develops and decide accordingly... hopefully at least one of the areas, leh or spiti will be accessible.