"Hunza Disaster - Gojal" Karakoram Highway: The Glaciated Mother of Every Epic Drive!

[ToofaneBatameezi]

The thread is also dedicated to the disaster that struck this beautiful valley. Please join in to collaborate in anyway you can.




Jalopnik covered the Karakoram Highways of Pakistan. So I am sharing with you all. Feels good to see them love our Country!!



For the ultimate in road trips, choose the highest paved road in the world. The Karakoram Highway is 800 miles of mountain road connecting Pakistan with China across some of the tallest mountains in the world.



Take the one towering above that perilously vertical Pakistani art truck. It’s called Nanga Parbat and it’s the ninth highest mountain in the world. Also known as the Killer Mountain, its flanks have seen the death of a mountaineer for every four who have ascended its 26,660-ft peak. The highway is named after the Karakoram, the Western reach of the Himalayas, which span the confluence of India, Pakistan and China. Home to five of the fourteen eight-thousanders, the longest glaciers outside the polar regions and a vicious conflict between India and Pakistan fought in 20,000-ft mountain passes, it’s the perfect place for an epic road.




Stretching 800 miles between Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, and Kashgar, an ancient Silk Road city in China’s Wild West, the Karakoram Highway was constructed between 1966 and 1986, claiming a life for every mile.



Leaving Islamabad to the north, the road winds its way toward Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan territory. Between the towns of Chilas and Gilgit, it passes within 15 miles of Nanga Parbat, then snakes into ever more forlorn regions of Pakistan to top out at the 15,400-ft high Khunjerab Pass.



It’s the highest point on the road and the highest paved mountain pass in the world, home to yaks, Chinese border guards and snow leopards. The road continues for another 300 miles on the Chinese side, passes more huge mountains, skates the Taklamakan Desert, then arrives in Kashgar.



As you can imagine, driving its length is not a Sunday afternoon cruise on an Upstate New York parkway. For long stretches, the Karakoram Highway is a thin ribbon of a road blasted into mountain faces, crowded with trucks, taxis, motorcycles, 4×4’s and humans. There are landslides. There are avalanches. And in hot summers, meltwater from the glaciers floods the road.



At least the Pakistanis have the sense of humor required on roads that reach into the very clouds. “RELAX – SLIDE AREA ENDS,” proclaims this sign photographed in 1995, which makes one wonder about the precise nature of the SLIDE AREA itself.



I would love to conclude with a tale of a personal crossing, but that will have to wait. Should you find yourself in Pakistan with time to kill and a Jeep in your possession, give it a shot for all us plains-bound Jalopniques—and please post your tales of landslides, avalanches and scary mountains in the comments.



The Karakoram Highway: The Glaciated Mother of Every Epic Drive - Infrastructure - Jalopnik

[DeeDee]

thx MOD

[Basharatu]

@Parapilot, thank you for the contact, hope to see you back in Islamabad soon!

@Mods, thank you fixing the pictures

@DeeDee, thanks for uploading the same

[Basharatu]

I had a discussion with a local Mr. Didar, contact details given by Ahsan Bhai aka Parapilot. He said shelter is one of the major challenges and IDP needs tents till the time they re-build there homes on the higher grounds. Height of Lake is still increasing and its moving towards Gulmit & Gulkhin. Mr. Didar was going to the disaster site and will share the latest update by the evening.

The heli on which Mr. Wajhat Malik (Travel Guide of Pakistan) had to visit these areas couldnt go due to bad weather for flying & he told that this may take a week. He also updated that food supply service via heli has also been stopped due to weather condition there and the stock was limited too. So People need food items as well, detailed input from Wajhat Sb. is awaited once he is there.

@Didar Sb. & Wajhat Sb., thank you very much.

[Basharatu]

p

[parapilot]

What is the latest?

[rizwan400]

Any plan for relief work????? Please share. I want to be a part of.

[Basharatu]

The makeshift pedestrian bridge constructed between Shishkat and Gulmit. This bridge was constructed to temporarily resolve the connectivity issue triggered by submergence of the second largest bridge on Karakuram Highway a few days ago. Photo by Razi Udin

[Basharatu]

http://Pamirtimes.net/

Gulmit, March 7: A Helicopter provided by NDMA has started dumping edible items in Gojal valley. According to reports at least 1300 bags of flour were transported to Gulmit for further distribution to other parts of Gojal valley. The helicopter service has been operational for the past three days. Fuel is also being transported to the valley.

[Basharatu]

The inhabitants of Gojal can hear, feel, and dread the nimble footfalls of water that is rising, extending, and seeping into newly found tracks, obliterating everything on its way. Their days are obsessed with the fear of fast approaching water. Their night’s sleep is marred by the nightmares of ferocious waves of the Hunza River. Will it catch us unawares? Is it a matter of weeks, or days or hours? Among them are also young girls and boys whose schools are either damaged or on the list of potential targets of brutal water, gushing out and gulping whatever comes in its way.

It started with the landslide at Atta Abad on January 4 this year when 20 people died and a number of houses caved in. The calamity did not stop here; rather it acted as a precursor to a tragedy of much greater magnitude. The debris, as a result of landslides, obstructed the flow of River Hunza and formed an artificial lake whose level is rising by the minute. The length of the barrier is 3,000 meters, width 550 meters, and height 135 meters. The artificial lake is around 11 km long. The reservoir is 171 million cubic meters. Until now (first week of March), the water has played havoc, damaging a three kilometre piece of Karakoram highway and is beginning to enter the low-lying areas of Kishkat, Gulmit, Hussaini and Passu. The longest bridge between Shishkat and Gulmit has already been submerged, severing Gojal’s link with the outer world...

Read the Complete Article on Sinking Paradise of Gojal

The writer is Director of Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences at Lahore School of Economics and author of Rethinking Education in Pakistan. He can be reached at shahidksiddiqui@yahoo.com
Source: Daily Times

[Basharatu]

Figures of excavation as reported by NDMA are 68178 cubic meter According to FOCUS geologist:

• Depth of the lake has increased to 213.50 ft
• Length of the lake stands at 11.87 km.

[DeeDee]

Any updates for reliefe work started or what best we can do.

[Basharatu]

..

[Basharatu]

www.pamirtimes.net
ISLAMABAD, Mar 8 (APP): President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday sought a report from Governor Gilgit Baltistan over the relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken for the landslide affectees of Atta Abad in the Hunza valley and steps for the draining of an artificial lake.The massive landslide had hit Hunza District on January 4, that led to the sliding of two villages including Atta Abad into the Hunza River. The landslide wiped-out everything in its path and the debris fell down into the Hunza River, blocking its water flow.


On that occasion, President Asif Ali Zardari, while expressing his deep shock and grief over massive landsliding that caused loss of life and destruction of private property had ordered for immediate measures to bring relief to the affected families.


The President sought a report to update him about the measures taken by Gilgit Baltistan administration and also by the federal government regarding the provision of shelter, food and medical help for the displaced people. He has also asked about the progress on measures taken to drain the artificial lake that was a growing threat to the downstream areas.

[Basharatu]

Any updates for relief work started or what best we can do.

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a guy from SOST who traveled from his hometown to Karimabad, a boat carried him from Ayeenabad to Ata abad slide barrier. Boat Travel is FREE for the local and currently it takes 30min from Ayeenabad to Slide Area. There is shortage of food supply in the upper Gojal Valley (Passu, Sost) since road is blocked, trade person are running there personal ships to carry food items and fuel, cost of Diesel has risen to 125/130 Ltr and Rice is 150/KG.

Relief is being given to the people whose homes have been submerged (IDPs), re-settling them and reconstructing homes for them is the challenge and I am sure there are NGOs who will assist in this. However, due to closure of the road and stoppage of economic activity and high prices of commodities its effecting the overall population there, farming season has started (Thagum Festival) but people have there fears on the rising water levels.

So, overall situation tells that inflation has risen and people need Support from us (Food Items & construction related material) to keep them motivated on starting the re-build.

[Basharatu]

These are shared by Mr. Ali Ahmed Sarwar

[Basharatu]

[sarmadqureshi]

Met up with a couple of engineers from a team that just came back studying the blockage and it cleared a lot of misconceptions people had;

The blockage is vast & not just a few feet.
Cannot blast or dredge as the sheer pressure of the accumulated water will not only wash away the barrier but will make the runaway more lethal with mud & debris in it, annihilating anything & everything in its path.

Excavation has already begun at far end of the artificial dam, will stop once it approaches closer to water side. Also the height of the barrier is being worked upon to bring it to water level.
The reason; to let the lake over flow the blockage & let the water follow a natural path, once again.

As for the bridges already submerged, they will have to be studied in order to render them fit for use.

They did make it sound scary, as they feel its a double edged sword, meaning Godforbid something goes wrong, the devastation could be huge.

[Basharatu]

Sarmad, any idea on the tentative dates our authorities have planned to open the road link - the KKH?

Furthermore, removing the debris to the old submerged bridge height seems like a huge task, if we are waiting for the dam to topup and start the natural flow then definitely the old bridge is history!

[aks_e_ahmed]

bhai logon pic post karna to sikha do plz

[sarmadqureshi]

Sarmad, any idea on the tentative dates our authorities have planned to open the road link - the KKH?

Furthermore, removing the debris to the old submerged bridge height seems like a huge task, if we are waiting for the dam to topup and start the natural flow then definitely the old bridge is history!

Sadly, our authorities cannot give a time line. They are just quick in making scary statements like the water is rising by x many feet / per day etc etc. All negativities in the media.

The road link may not open untill completely safe, as the falling water may take with it some chunks of road, sides & embankments.

As for the old bridge, if it withstands the rush of the water flowing out, its foundations have definately been shaken.

I believe the chinese are waiting for things to clear to come & assess the situation of restoring the links.