Hundreds of rescuers dug through slushy debris and fast-flowing, icy water Friday in a search for survivors after a glacial lake burst through a dam in India’s Himalayan northeast, a disaster that many had warned was possible for years.
Inside a shrine overlooking snow-capped mountains, Hindu priests closed their eyes and chanted in Sanskrit, hoping their prayers would somehow turn back time and save their holy — and sinking — town.
More than 700 homes in the town of Joshimath, in the Indian Himalayas, have developed cracks, forcing hundreds of newly homeless residents to evacuate.
It’s the world’s most vulnerable glacier and key to the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, yet we’re only now getting to know Thwaites Glacier. What took us so long?
