Sunday, July 28, 2013

Desperation indeed!


The recent floods in North India led to several bridges being damaged or destroyed as rivers came down in spate.  About 100,000 Hindu pilgrims were left stranded at or near several shrines, and were desperate to get back to their homes;  but the downed bridges made this difficult or impossible.

This led to desperate measures, such as these pilgrims trying to cross the severely damaged bridge at Govindghat.





The Indian Army managed to rig up a temporary bridge to replace the damaged structure a few days later.  It still looks pretty flimsy, but it at least let people get home.





From my own experience, I can assure you that crossing rivers in spate like that is a tricky business at the best of times.  I wouldn't trust my life to a half-collapsed bridge like that, no matter how much you paid me!





Peter

2 comments:

Old NFO said...

Very ballsy folks there... I think "I" would have waited it out.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Some great work there by the Indian Army. As a former Combat Engineer I admire them putting a Baily type bridge across that river from a very small bridgehead.