Indians Publish Cries for Help and Calls for Donations on Twitter as Deadly Flooding Hits Jammu and Kashmir

Flash floods have submerged about 2,600 villages and killed 150 people so far in the northern-most Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in what is being described as the worst food the area has seen in 50 years.

Heavy torrential rain in the Himalayan mountains in the past weeks caused the worst floods in 50 years in Kashmir Valley and some districts of Jammu region. Approximately one-third of capital Srinagar city is under flood waters and over a million people are affected in Jammu division. According to news reports, more than 11,000 civilians have been rescued so far and 2,000 have been provided with food and temporary shelters.

As the situation worsened, more and more citizen journalists began spreading the news via Twitter and Facebook. Twitter hashtags like #KashmirFloods, #KashmirFloodRelief and #JKFloodRelief are being used. Raheel Khurshid, the head of news, politics & government at Twitter India, prepared a list of Twitter users who are updating the situation from the ground.

Authint Mail, an online news site, reported that army, police, fire and emergency workers were called in to evacuate stranded families from Bemina Srinagar. On September 6, 2014, it reported in a live blog that overnight rains in Srinagar and nearby regions of Indian-administered Kashmir have swelled the water levels in river Jehlum and other streams. Thousands in the region abandoned their homes and were running short of essential commodities.