Emergency Medical Teams Treat Flood Survivors, Help Health Facilities in Jammu & Kashmir

AmeriCares India emergency medical teams, facing extremely challenging conditions on the ground, have treated over 15,000 survivors of a major flooding disaster in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 250 people and severely damaged communications and infrastructure including hospitals and other health facilities that served more than a million people.

The medical teams established 33 medical camps to reach survivors in the midst of a health care crisis brought about when four major hospitals were submerged for nearly two weeks in more than 10 feet of water that damaged anything and everything it touched.  In addition to providing treatment, medicines and humanitarian supplies to survivors, AmeriCares has also helped to restore health services, donating special equipment to the GB Pant Children’s Hospital in Srinagar, the only specialty pediatric hospital serving the entire Kashmir Valley,

Although the polluted flood waters have receded, the flooding inundated the city drinking water supplies, putting the population at risk of water borne diseases including cholera and gastroenteritis. The emergency teams continue working in the most heavily affected areas of Srinagar, Bandipor and surrounding villages.

Emergency Shipments and Health Interventions

Special equipment donation helps Children’s Hospital treat the youngest patients.

While focusing on health care access to treat survivors and prevent the spread of disease, AmeriCares India has distributed 3 tons of medicines and supplies, along with 2 million water purification tablets and thousands of drinking water storage cans to ensure potable drinking water for thousands of families until their supplies are normal. The humanitarian supplies include health and personal hygiene products for the protection of women, children and families.

Working with 7 partners in the region, AmeriCares India continues to plan and carry out interventions for the rural population of more than 820,000 in 50 villages.The partnerships with local volunteer bodies have enabled supplies to reach thousands of survivors.

AmeriCares India provides emergency medical and humanitarian aid in response to floods, cyclones, earthquakes and other disasters including most recently the flooding in Bihar, the 2013 flooding in Uttarakhand and the destruction in Odisha from Cyclone Phailin.