Itanagar: Rescue teams are back on the Sisiri River this morning. They are hunting for three people still trapped on islands following a failed river crossing. The situation remains grim in Arunachal Pradesh. A rescue raft carrying ten people hit a massive current on Sunday near Dambuk and flipped over.
The trouble started when a seven-man team went out to save four people stuck in the rising water. They managed to grab three of the victims before the river turned on them. The raft buckled under the water force. Five riders swam to the bank on their own, but five others were hauled away by the churning river.
The National Disaster Response Force pulled a man off a log in the middle of the river. Two more were plucked from the water late Sunday night. As of Monday morning, eight of the eleven people involved are safe. Three remain stuck on small patches of land surrounded by floodwaters. One person, previously feared lost, was found alive on a separate island.
Officials have 30 NDRF personnel on the ground. They are joined by state police and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. The Secretary of Civil Aviation stated that "an Indian Air Force helicopter has been kept on standby at Mohanbari for aerial support," but the weather is holding them back. Rain and thick clouds are currently grounding the aircraft. Teams resumed the desperate search at 4:45 am on Monday.
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