‘It was like hills were chasing us’: Friends who dodged death in Uttarkashi flash flood; say, ‘we were seconds from being swallowed’ | Dehradun News
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DEHRADUN/UTTARKASHI: Sohan Singh Panwar, a 42-year-old hotel worker at flash flood-hit Dharali, still can’t shake off the sound of people screaming “Bhago, bhago (run, run)!” as a wall of debris came crashing down the Kheer Gad stream, sweeping away parts of the village market in seconds.Sohan, who works at Shiv Kripa Hotel, had stopped for lunch at a nearby restaurant on Tuesday with seven friends. They were about to head to the local village festival when they saw something terrifying — the nearby Shiwalik Hotel collapsed like a pack of cards before their eyes. “A split second later, we heard frantic whistles and people screaming…” Sohan told TOI in a still-shaken voice.He recounted: “We were stunned for a moment. And then someone shouted at the top of his lungs, ‘run for your lives’, and everyone ran dashed out. A black car was speeding ahead of us…. That viral clip you see being circulated. We’re the ones in it. That’s us. We were seconds away from being swallowed.”Sohan and nearly 15-20 others bolted toward Harsil, including some who had been standing close to the black car that also took off moments before the flood arrived. “It was terrifying, like the mountain was chasing us,” he added.The men managed to run nearly 100m — far enough to escape the deadly current. But not all were as lucky. Sohan’s friend, Munna Panwar, who owned a small hotel nearby, is among the missing. “He went to his room upstairs for an afternoon nap. That building collapsed. He never came out.”Sohan also fears many workers inside Hotel Aanchal may have been buried, as that structure, too, was flattened. “I can’t believe I’m alive,” he said. “One moment we were talking about lunch. The next, we were running as if there was no tomorrow.”
