Uttarakhand: Machines to dig out hundreds of buried bodies

A month has passed since Uttarakhand was swamped by the rain-flood tragedy, and hundreds of bodies and animal carcasses still lie buried under several feet of silt and rubble in the Kedarnath Valley. The authorities will now deploy machines to dig out these remnants.

State Health Minister Surinder Singh Negi told IANS Monday that the state government will use special machines to dig out the bodies buried deep in the debris in the flood-affected areas of the state.

"The machines have already been air-dropped in the Munsiyari area Sunday and will soon be dropped in the Kedar Valley as well," he said. Munsiyari is over 100 km from Kedarnath.

Negi said they have removed almost all the bodies which were lying strewn around on the surface in the aftermath of the floods, but the bodies buried in the silt are difficult to be removed.

"Since it is impossible to dig out all the bodies manually, we are using machines," he said, adding that two machines are being sent to the Kedar Valley.

Negi said inclement weather and a damaged helipad have hindered and delayed the process of airlifting the machines earlier.

"The issue we are facing in Kedarnath is bad weather. One other factor is the helipad is badly damaged and not equipped for landings as of now," the minister said.

To prevent the putrefying bodies from causing infection and spreading disease, the authorities have scattered tonnes of bleaching power in the flood-hit areas and also sprayed disinfectants, including from helicopters.

"We have also provided lakhs of fluoride tablets to people to make their drinking water safe," he said.

Negi said there have been no health issues in the affected areas so far.

"We have made efforts to ensure that there are no outbreaks of diseases," he said, adding that a team of 80 doctors from the central government is camping in the state.

The state government Monday declared 5,748 people are still missing, and that it would start disbursing compensation to the next of kin. But the government clarified that search for the missing would continue.

Monday 15 July 2013

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1861451/report-machines-to-dig-out-hundreds-of-buried-bodies-a-month-since-the-uttarakhand-disaster

Sichuan: Landslide victims identified by DNA

Ten victims of a landslide in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province, last Wednesday have been identified by DNA comparisons. "Medics collected 162 DNA samples from people who are looking for missing relatives and 37 DNA samples from landslide victims," said Dujiangyan's executive vice-mayor Chen Yangjie.

The landslide occurred on Wednesday in Sanxi, a village in Zhongxing, Dujiangyan, after the most severe rainstorm Dujiangyan has experienced since it began keeping meteorological records in 1954. Eight rural resorts were buried. Forty-three people perished and another 118 are missing.

"As all the bodies recovered from the site are mixed with mud and sand, it is impossible to identify them without DNA tests," said Yang Weiping, a rescuer on the scene.

Search operations have proved extremely difficult in the mountainous village as the affected area is 2 kilometers long, and contains about 1.5 million cubic meters of mud, rock and debris.

"Very often, rescuers have to use their own hands rather than excavators to dig out victims in order not to disfigure them. As roads leading to the village have been ruined, rescuers have to set up temporary bridges with ropes to transport boards on which victims' bodies lie," Yang said.

According to the Sichuan provincial department of civil affairs, the stormy weather, which started in Sichuan on July 7, has affected 15 cities and autonomous prefectures with a combined population of nearly 2.5 million.

In Wenchuan, a county ravaged by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in 2008, all townships have been affected by the storm.

"Rainstorm-triggered floods and landslides have caused 14 deaths and 15 people are missing," said county Party chief Qing Lidong. The Wolong Nature Reserve in Wenchuan has experienced the most damage since the 2008 earthquake, in which nearly 70,000 died.

"Rainstorms have caused 38 landslides. More than 6,000 people have been affected. Roads, agriculture, communications, power and water supply facilities as well as many infrastructure facilities rebuilt after the earthquake have been damaged. Economic losses total 140 million yuan ($22.8 million)," said Zhang Hemin, chief of the administrative bureau of the Wolong Nature Reserve.

In the Wenchuan earthquake, one of the reserve's pandas died, one went missing and 13 panda dens were damaged. After the earthquake, many pandas from Wolong were transferred to the reserve's Bifengxia base in Ya'an, Sichuan. Wolong has only 10 pandas being trained for reintroduction to the wild.

"All the pandas in Wolong are safe. But the road leading to Yingxiu town in Wenchuan from Wolong has been damaged. It hinders the transportation of production materials and daily necessities to the reserve where more than 5,000 people live," Zhang said.

The pandas at the Bifengxia base are 260 km from Wolong and also safe as the mountainous base is 1,100 to 1,200 meters above sea level and the rainstorm had a minimal impact on it.

Monday 15 July 2013

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-07/15/content_16775335.htm

Canada rail disaster official death toll hits 35

Two more bodies were found on Sunday in downtown Lac-Megantic, the Quebec town devastated when an oil tanker train derailed and exploded, bringing the body count to 35 of the 50 presumed dead.

Two damaged and unstable buildings in the disaster zone were demolished on Sunday afternoon, police added, to allow searchers safer access to the area as the search for corpses continues.

"Temperatures are very high, which slows down the operations. Three firefighters were lightly wounded on Sunday, but they were cared for on the scene," said provincial police spokesman Michel Forget.

The train, made up of 72 tanker cars loaded with crude oil, derailed in the early hours of July 6 in Lac-Megantic, a town of 6,000 near the Canada-US border. Waves of fire gutted several streets in the town centre. The disaster appears to have been caused by an engineer's failure to properly set the hand brake on the runaway, the railway's chairman said this week.

Monday 15 July 2013

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/canada-rail-disaster-official-death-toll-hits-35-20130715