The survivors of the Uttarakhand avalanche shared horrific stories of how tonnes of snow came crashing down on the BRO camp, leaving them buried for hours until rescue workers extricated them. Four people, all construction workers, died in the accident and five are still missing.
Gopal Joshi is one of the 55 construction workers who were entrapped by the snow after the avalanche hit BRO containers near the Mana village.
Joshi, a native of Narayanbagar in Chamoli district, had been operating an accelerator machine for the last several months. The group was employed at a BRO camp by Vijay Infra Construction Company.
Joshi and 22 of his colleagues are undergoing treatment at the Army’s Jyotirmath hospital.
He told PTI that on Friday morning, he heard thunder. He wanted to scamper to safety but couldn’t run because of the snow.
Also read: Uttarakhand avalanche: 4 workers dead, 46 rescued; search on for 5 others
“Snow was falling outside. The incident must have happened around 6 am. As soon as we came out of the container, we heard a loud thunder. When we looked towards the top, we saw a deluge of snow rolling towards us. I shouted to alert my companions and ran. There was already several feet of snow due to which we could not run fast. After two hours, the soldiers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police came to rescue us,” he said.
Joshi sustained injuries to his head and pain in the chest.
Vipin Kumar of Himachal Pradesh, who hurt his back, said he was buried in snow for about 15 minutes.
“I was able to get out of the snow only when the avalanche stopped,” said Kumar, who said it was his “second birth”.
‘Mountain of snow’
Another worker, Manoj Bhandari, said he woke up to a “mountain of snow” sliding from the peak. “I shouted to alert everyone and ran behind the loader machine parked nearby to save myself,” he added.
Jagbir Singh from Punjab’s Amritsar said: “The avalanche was so intense that we could not take our other companions along.”
Three workers from Mathura said their bid to escape the avalanche was hindered by “several feet of snow.”
46 of the 55 workers were rescued. The authorities are searching for five people.
With inputs from PTI, ANI