Leh

I took this photo of Leh on July 1. A little more than a month later, parts of Leh and its surrounding areas were completely obliterated by flooding and mudslides during a freakish downpour in the middle of the night. 165 are dead with hundreds injured and scores still "missing".
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/165-dead-in-Leh-flash-floods-81-foreigners-rescued/articleshow/6286099.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Leh-now-battles-food-water-shortage/articleshow/6284908.cms

Looking at some of the photos of places around town that we recently visited and is now destroyed is disturbing. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Leh-now-battles-food-water-shortage/articleshow/6284908.cms (warning, some photos are very graphic) They're upsetting not so much that we could have been there while the mudslides happened, but also knowing how kind, friendly, and sweet the people of Leh are.

While natural disasters may be unavoidable, tragedies such as this are not necessarily so. I have to wonder what difference it would have made if Leh and its surrounding regions had better infrastructure (I can speak from firsthand experience about the poor roads and drainage) and had a greater investment in development. Poverty and tragedy from disasters are always intertwined- the current floods in Pakistan and China, the recent earthquake in Haiti are examples as is Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans.

While the Indian army and several large NGOs are responding to the crisis http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health1/ngo-seeks-public-help-in-leh-relief-work_100409069.html

http://www.savethechildren.in/component/content/article/49-newsflash/328-a-public-appeal-to-support-relief-efforts-in-leh.html
, their immediate relief, while absolutely critical, are still no substitute for longterm development efforts. Avoiding such future tragedies in Leh (or anywhere else in the world) requires not only a substantial investment in financial, social and human capital but vision as well.