The Central Water Commission, which issues flood advisories, has been criticized by Indian media for not warning the state. Military are engaged in a massive rescue operation in both, India and Pakistan, using boats. About 22,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in India. Some of them were airlifted from rooftops by helicopter Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, called the flooding a “national disaster”. In Pakistan, 203 people were reported killed by the flash floods in Kashmir. The amount of rainfall in a day was a staggering 400 millimeters in Haveli which had no parallel in the past 50 years.
Two years ago in the Himalayan Indian state of Uttarakhand killed 5,000 people, including many Hindu pilgrims. The floods have become an annual phenomenon in this area. India and Pakistan are struggling with inadequate infrastructure to deal with such natural disasters.
