It was a phone call from his distressed father in Srinagar at 1.30am a
week ago that put Squadron Leader DPS Bali on the first available flight
to flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir.
Bali, a fighter pilot in
the Indian Air Force on a course in faraway Coimbatore, heard his father
say that he might not hear from them again. Their home in Srinagar’s
Jawahar Nagar area had been submerged by swirling water, and residents
felt like they were sitting in the middle of the Jhelum.
What made matters worse was that Bali’s uncle Harpal Singh had suffered a stroke.
An instructor who flies MiG-21s and Su-30s, Bali had been in Coimbatore only a few days before he got the distress call.
“There was no word from my family after that call,” Bali told Mail Today over phone on Sunday.
Bali sought - and immediately got - permission from his commanding officer to join the Kashmir relief effort. It is now IAF practice to pool officers with awareness of local conditions if and when relief and rescue operations are conducted. Bali was in the pool.
Hope ::
He was on a commercial flight the next morning and reached Delhi, from where he boarded an IAF transport bound for Srinagar.
When Bali arrived in his hometown, it was dark. At the break of dawn, he was on board a Mi-17V5 helicopter for the mission, that included rescuing his own family.
“The entire neighbourhood was flooded,” recalled Bali. He caught a glimpse of his mother waving at the helicopter.
As the helicopter went lower, he made eye contact with his mother. Assured of his family’s safety, Bali pressed on to where the helicopter crew had spotted a large crowd of women and children stranded on a rooftop.
Twenty-eight people, mostly women and children, were winched to safety.
“One of the children who was rescued was only 30 days old, the same as my nephew,” said Bali, who was then winched down to his home. He stayed back for the helicopter to return. By evening, Bali had managed to get his family to safety, including his uncle, who had suffered another stroke in the meantime.
Being familiar with the city, Bali opted to stay on in Srinagar and volunteer for more rescue operations. It has been a non-stop effort since then.
“In fact, today is the first day when we got a breather,” he told Mail Today.
Bali’s father, a retired SBI manager, recounted that this was the first instance of the waters of the Jhelum flowing into houses. The current was so strong that it was impossible for normal boats to move through the streets to rescue stranded people.
Disease threat rises as floodwaters ebb ::
As the floodwaters recede, the hapless residents of Jammu and Kashmir face a new threat - diseases.
The state government is trying its best to provide medicines to the flood-affected people, even though the rescue operations were slightly hampered due to the return of rains in the Valley.
Though the water has stated to recede, the filth that has accumulated across the Valley, including carcasses of animals, along with lack of clean drinking water, pose a serious challenge.
Health authorities have issued advisories, rushed doctors, paramedics and medicines, and were carrying out mass immunisation against measles.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and senior officials of the state government met Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday, who assured that all assistance will be provided to them. Meanwhile, the Badami Bagh cantonment, one of the largest cantonment areas considered to be the nerve centre of Indian Army in J&K, has been completely inundated.
The barracks are under water, the golf course of the cantonment is under floodwater, and the ammunition depots, according to local residents of Batwara, are inundated.
The armed forces and the National Disaster Relief Force have rescued over two lakh people as the operations entered the 13th day on Sunday. Over one lakh people are still marooned after the worst floods in the state in a century unleashed a trail of death and destruction, claiming at least 250 lives. -Mail Today & PTI
Survivors search for missing relatives ::
After crossing neck-deep water in flood-hit Srinagar on Sunday afternoon to search for his sister, Mushtaq Ahmad Dar found the lone Kashmir maternity hospital closed. Scores of starving dogs howled at Dar and his brother accompanying him there. Saima Rashid was admitted on September 7 when floods swept the city.
“Is anyone out there?” Dar shouted. From the hospital’s third floor, a person responded saying that all patients were shifted to other places.
“Where?” Dar asked. “I have no information,” the person replied.
Dejected, the two brothers, who had travelled from south Kashmir’s Tral town, came out of the hospital. They asked Bashir Ahmad, a lonely guard of the 500-bed hospital, for the whereabouts of their sister. “All patients have left. Nine patients were here but they were evacuated last evening to some unknown place,” he said.
Dar and his brother are not the only people searching for their missing relatives. Muhammad Aslam Khan, a resident of remote Ahrabal village in Kulgam district, is also hunting for his sister, admitted to the hospital on Sunday. “I don’t know whether she is alive,” he said.
Some distance from the hospital, people wait for boats of Shikarawallas and NDRF personnel to ferry them to the worst-hit Mahjoor Nagar locality. But then there are few boats and hundreds of people waiting to reach the scene.
“I have been waiting for a boat since morning. My daughter Bisma Mehraj was working as domestic worker at a lady doctor’s house at Mehjoor Nagar. I don’t know whether she is alive. She is only 14,” a woman said. “Should I go to Doordarshan and tell them to telecast news about my daughter?” she said.
Unfortunately, she is unaware that even the DD office is inundated and all DD Kashir (Kashmir) news is being run from New Delhi.
Bali, a fighter pilot in
the Indian Air Force on a course in faraway Coimbatore, heard his father
say that he might not hear from them again. Their home in Srinagar’s
Jawahar Nagar area had been submerged by swirling water, and residents
felt like they were sitting in the middle of the Jhelum. What made matters worse was that Bali’s uncle Harpal Singh had suffered a stroke.
An instructor who flies MiG-21s and Su-30s, Bali had been in Coimbatore only a few days before he got the distress call.
“There was no word from my family after that call,” Bali told Mail Today over phone on Sunday.
Bali sought - and immediately got - permission from his commanding officer to join the Kashmir relief effort. It is now IAF practice to pool officers with awareness of local conditions if and when relief and rescue operations are conducted. Bali was in the pool.
Hope ::
He was on a commercial flight the next morning and reached Delhi, from where he boarded an IAF transport bound for Srinagar.
When Bali arrived in his hometown, it was dark. At the break of dawn, he was on board a Mi-17V5 helicopter for the mission, that included rescuing his own family.
“The entire neighbourhood was flooded,” recalled Bali. He caught a glimpse of his mother waving at the helicopter.
As the helicopter went lower, he made eye contact with his mother. Assured of his family’s safety, Bali pressed on to where the helicopter crew had spotted a large crowd of women and children stranded on a rooftop.
Twenty-eight people, mostly women and children, were winched to safety.
“One of the children who was rescued was only 30 days old, the same as my nephew,” said Bali, who was then winched down to his home. He stayed back for the helicopter to return. By evening, Bali had managed to get his family to safety, including his uncle, who had suffered another stroke in the meantime.
Being familiar with the city, Bali opted to stay on in Srinagar and volunteer for more rescue operations. It has been a non-stop effort since then.
“In fact, today is the first day when we got a breather,” he told Mail Today.
Bali’s father, a retired SBI manager, recounted that this was the first instance of the waters of the Jhelum flowing into houses. The current was so strong that it was impossible for normal boats to move through the streets to rescue stranded people.
Disease threat rises as floodwaters ebb ::
As the floodwaters recede, the hapless residents of Jammu and Kashmir face a new threat - diseases.
The state government is trying its best to provide medicines to the flood-affected people, even though the rescue operations were slightly hampered due to the return of rains in the Valley.
Though the water has stated to recede, the filth that has accumulated across the Valley, including carcasses of animals, along with lack of clean drinking water, pose a serious challenge.
Health authorities have issued advisories, rushed doctors, paramedics and medicines, and were carrying out mass immunisation against measles.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and senior officials of the state government met Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday, who assured that all assistance will be provided to them. Meanwhile, the Badami Bagh cantonment, one of the largest cantonment areas considered to be the nerve centre of Indian Army in J&K, has been completely inundated.
The barracks are under water, the golf course of the cantonment is under floodwater, and the ammunition depots, according to local residents of Batwara, are inundated.
The armed forces and the National Disaster Relief Force have rescued over two lakh people as the operations entered the 13th day on Sunday. Over one lakh people are still marooned after the worst floods in the state in a century unleashed a trail of death and destruction, claiming at least 250 lives. -Mail Today & PTI
Survivors search for missing relatives ::
After crossing neck-deep water in flood-hit Srinagar on Sunday afternoon to search for his sister, Mushtaq Ahmad Dar found the lone Kashmir maternity hospital closed. Scores of starving dogs howled at Dar and his brother accompanying him there. Saima Rashid was admitted on September 7 when floods swept the city.
“Is anyone out there?” Dar shouted. From the hospital’s third floor, a person responded saying that all patients were shifted to other places.
“Where?” Dar asked. “I have no information,” the person replied.
Dejected, the two brothers, who had travelled from south Kashmir’s Tral town, came out of the hospital. They asked Bashir Ahmad, a lonely guard of the 500-bed hospital, for the whereabouts of their sister. “All patients have left. Nine patients were here but they were evacuated last evening to some unknown place,” he said.
Dar and his brother are not the only people searching for their missing relatives. Muhammad Aslam Khan, a resident of remote Ahrabal village in Kulgam district, is also hunting for his sister, admitted to the hospital on Sunday. “I don’t know whether she is alive,” he said.
Some distance from the hospital, people wait for boats of Shikarawallas and NDRF personnel to ferry them to the worst-hit Mahjoor Nagar locality. But then there are few boats and hundreds of people waiting to reach the scene.
“I have been waiting for a boat since morning. My daughter Bisma Mehraj was working as domestic worker at a lady doctor’s house at Mehjoor Nagar. I don’t know whether she is alive. She is only 14,” a woman said. “Should I go to Doordarshan and tell them to telecast news about my daughter?” she said.
Unfortunately, she is unaware that even the DD office is inundated and all DD Kashir (Kashmir) news is being run from New Delhi.
0 Comments