Forty eight hours on, four still missing in Arunachal flash flood, IAF joins search

Itanagar, June 26: More than 48 hours after a devastating flash flood struck Yazali in Arunachal Pradesh’s Keyi Panyor district, four people remain missing despite an intensive multi-agency search operation that has now been reinforced with Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters.

With weather conditions improving on Thursday, IAF choppers launched aerial sorties and search-and-rescue (SAR) missions to trace the missing persons — identified as Elesh Marak, Baleria Marak, Tao Angina and Sourav Kumar.

The body of a fifth missing person, Nirmala Gupta, was recovered on Wednesday evening, hours after the disaster struck the newly created district.

Keyi Panyor Deputy Commissioner Sweti Nagarkoti said search teams comprising the district administration, police, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) personnel and local volunteers have been carrying out continuous operations, but there has been no breakthrough so far.

“The body of Nirmala Gupta, wife of a VKV school teacher, was recovered on June 24 evening. It was airlifted by a helicopter to Gohpur in Assam on Thursday for the last rites,” the Deputy Commissioner said.

The flash flood hit the NEEPCO Colony area at Poosa near Yazali on Wednesday morning, sweeping away houses, damaging infrastructure and triggering landslides across several locations.

Rescue efforts have been hampered by extensive road blockages, with Yazali effectively cut off from the rest of the state due to landslides and debris on highways leading into the district.

Nagarkoti said clearing the debris and restoring connectivity has become a major challenge for the administration. She added that the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been unable to reach the affected area because of the blocked roads, leaving a 22-member SDRF team to lead the ground search operations.

Authorities are simultaneously working to reopen roads buried under mud, sludge and boulders even as hopes of finding the four missing persons alive diminish with each passing hour.

The disaster has once again highlighted the vulnerability of Arunachal Pradesh’s hill districts to extreme weather events and the challenges of mounting rescue operations in remote, mountainous terrain.

Also Read: Landslide cuts off Mokokchung-Tuensang road, vehicles stranded

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