400 villages flooded, thousands displaced in Kashmir

Thousands of people have been forced to leave their houses and take shelter at safer places as the flood furry continues across Kashmir Valley with no let up in the rains for the fifth day today, officials said.

With nearly 400 villages of the Valley inundated by unprecedented floods, the residents from many of these villages have moved to safer places, leaving behind their homes and belongings as water level continues to rise due to incessant rains, the officials said. Army, police and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been assisting and helping affected people to move to safer places, they said.

The people have been lodged in school buildings, mosques and even at several railway stations in Srinagar and south Kashmir districts of Pulwama and Anantnag, they said. Residents in many areas are reluctant to leave their houses due to apprehensions about security of their property, making the task of the rescue teams difficult, the officials said.

The state government has established community kitchens at several places for the displaced people while some NGOs have also started providing relief materials like blankets and clothes to those affected. The civil administration has appealed to the people living near the rivers and rivulets in the Valley to move to safer places as embankments have been breached at many places in Pulwama district.

More areas are likely to be affected by the floods in the Valley as MeT department has forecast more rains over the next 24 hours across the state. The death toll in the worst floods in the state in nearly six decades has claimed 100 lives so far.