Deadly Avalanches in Kashmir...

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Does anyone know if Hop is still in Kashmir? Anyone hear from him lately? Here's to hoping that he's nowhere near any of this.


Copy & pasted from Yahoo news:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...a_kashmir_snow



Avalanches, Slides Kill 154 in Kashmir

49 minutes ago World - AP Asia


By MUJTABA ALI AHMAD, Associated Press Writer

SRINAGAR, India - Avalanches and slides triggered by heavy weekend snowfall in India's portion of Kashmir (news - web sites) have killed at least 154 people and left 200 missing, an official said Monday. Much of the region remained cut off for a third straight day, blanketed under the heaviest snowfall in 15 years.

At least 117 people were killed in avalanches that began Sunday night in a series of Kashmiri villages south of Srinagar, Kashmir's main city, said police officer Imtiyaz Ahmed, who said the toll of the dead and missing remained incomplete.


Elsewhere in the region, three separate landslides killed eight people, police said.


"Because of heavy snow, we are unable to establish contact with most of the remote areas. The number of dead could increase as reports start to trickle in," said Khursheed Ganai, a senior administrator of Kashmir valley.


At least 1,000 houses have been damaged in the region, which has received up to 15 feet of snow since Friday.


Many road and air links to Jammu-Kashmir were severed, and Indian Air Force pilots were flying in fuel, milk and other necessities. Helicopters had dropped 440 pounds of rations in a tunnel along the Srinagar-Jammu highway, where more than 100 soldiers from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police have taken shelter, said an army spokesman, Col. D.K. Badola.


Most of Srinagar's usually busy roads were snowed in. People walked to work or to get supplies.


Thousands of motorists and truckers had been stranded on an avalanche-blocked highway between the state's winter and summer capitals, but improving weather allowed rescuers to begin evacuating them on Monday.


Indian air force helicopters rescued 45 tourists who had been stranded for nearly a week in the Ladakh region, said Air Vice-Marshal S.K. Gehlaut.


Meanwhile, soldiers rescued a 65-year-old woman who had been buried under the snow for more than two days in southwestern Kashmir's Loran village, said an Indian army spokesman, Col. D.K. Badola. The woman's home was hit by an avalanche and collapsed Friday, and she was in a hospital, Badola said.


There were also power outages and severed telephone links.


"This snowfall is unprecedented," said Srinagar resident Hasan Najar, 70. "We could do nothing except watch it snowing for three days."


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[Mulletizer]

He is still there, along with two other friends of mine and a couple of others. I think they are due back to in Yurp on the 27th, due to leave Kashmir on the 24th. Here's praying they're ok. No word in a while (to me at least) but they haven't exactly been in touch with any regularit.

FWIW It sounds as if the worst avys are south of Srinagar; they were to be based in Gulmarg, which is west of the city. Fingers, and everything else crossed.

edit: found some news saying that a ski comp went ahead in Gulmarg yesterday - hopefully that means things are ok there.

[Telepath]

Yeah, hop and Glisseur are still there. Maybe someone at TGR have more info from the crew they have (had?) there?

[FigureEleven]

[cab9]

Hey Guys, not sure if he ever posts here, but is GVD with that group?
I know he would have been around Gulmarg.
Thanks.

[backpack]

"has received up to 15 feet of snow since Friday"

That's like 4 feet of snow a day... whoa.

hopefully everyone is ok, and that the local villages don't get hit with any more big slides

[Rusty Nails]

I'll see if I can get some better info tomorrow or wednesday.

[ak_powder_monkey]

wow, thats a ton of snow.

[Arty50]

"has received up to 15 feet of snow since Friday"

That's like 4 feet of snow a day... whoa.

Talk about superextremotripleoverheadradness. Damn.

[Telepath]

Hey Guys, not sure if he ever posts here, but is GVD with that group?.

He's not; but he was there at some point too, not sure if he's still around. Glisseur told me he met him, Micah and some other TGR people in Srinagar and that also the TGR crew was heading for Gulmarg.

[Mulletizer]

From what I infer, the TGR crew left the area on the 16th.

[summit]

Reuters