AUGUST4-2000
By
Asem Mustafa Awan
ISLAMABAD
— Hundred and eleven houses were totally gutted out of 116 in a massive
mud slide which completely wiped out Kande
village, which comes in the way of the mountaineers when they are
on their way to the Karakorums.
"It
was terrible," said the elite German mountaineer Ralf Dujmovits who
returned from the area on Thursday evening.
He
said," Fortunately there has been no loss of life as the massive mud
slide came in the afternoon of July 30 and prior to that there were small
mud slides as warning signs."
"The
people are in the open now and we really hope that supplies reaches them
in time for if it doesn't reach them, a number of people will die with out
shelter."
He
said," These are signs of global warming and this year was the same
as that of 1999 when it was raining instead of snowing at 6000 metres."
"When
we were climbing Gasherbrum it was constant bad weather for three weeks
and rain as high as 6000 metres. We were getting the weather reports from
Austria and the metrologist a very old scientist who specializes in the
weather systems of Karakorum and Himalayas has termed the weather pattern
in the two years very unusual."
It
may be mentioned here that land routes are not operational due to land
slides in Gilgit and Skardu region similarly a large part of Hushe village
is also under mud slide at present.
Due
to bad weather only two flights were operated and it happened on Thursday
and Friday.