DHENKANAL, Sep 14: Seven members of two families stranded in Kashmir due to unprecedented flood last week returned here safe .
The family members expressed their gratitude to the brave jawans ofthe Armed forces for saving their lives from the disaster that struck Jammu and Kashmir leaving hundreds dead and lakhs affected.
They said they had not seen flood fury in such a magnitude that caused wide devastations beyond description.
Two friends Madhu Jawahar (35) and Deepak Agrawalla along with their wives and children left for Jammu and Kashmir on September 3 last. They flew from Bhubaneswar to New Delhi and from New Delhi to Srinagar and landed in Srinagar in the afternooon amid heavy rain there.
Madhu said they first stayed in a boat house at Dal lake amid incessant rain till September 6. When the water level in the lake started rising and the flood water gushed into the boat house the boat they shifted to a nearby hotel arranged by the boat house people.
‘On the next day we have to rush to the Information centre after the hotel was flooded. But a few hours after the flood water submerged the Information centre forcing us to move to a near by hill.
We took our children on our shoulders and moved to the hill where over 10000 people took shelter under open sky’ he added.
Madhu said from the hill there they saw five boat hoses submerged and several vehicles washed away by flood water. In the night, he said, they collected some food distributed by people in a mosque near the hill to feed our children. The elders were without proper food for three days.
He said the personnel of the Border Security Force rescued them on September 9 from the mosque to a helipad where more than 15000 kashmirians had taken shelter.
Madhu said finally they were air lifted by Indian air force on September 12 to Delhi from where they boarded a train and reached Odisha.
Madhu and Deepak thanked God and the Defence personnel for saving them and their children from death. (UNI)
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