Hell’s Gate Flooding Survivor Narrates Tragic Tale

Flooding at Hell’s Gate National Park on Sunday night took the lives of 7 victims. Five of those victims were family members to Ivraj Singh Hayer who is one of the survivors. One other victim was his close friend. Speaking from Guru Nanak Hospital, Ivraj narrated the painful tale of that Sunday night with a heavy heart to the Star Newspaper.

“I am standing here strong having lost six people. It is not easy, but I saw them go,” Hayer narrated. He explained how six of them had held onto each other for hours. “My driver was next to me and he managed to hold onto a rock and I held him. That is how we were able to hold each other, six of us, for hours for about one hour and 30 minutes.”

After the water speed reduced, some of them were able to run away. When the search party started the rescue mission, they discovered the body of a woman holding a bag who was identified as Hayer’s wife. “For me, that was shocking because it was my wife who had a bag at that moment,” said Hayer to the authorities.

The search ended soon because of darkness but continued in the morning. On Monday, they recovered the body of his niece. The other bodies were recovered within 30km of the first two bodies.

What comes as a shock is that Mr. Hayer said that as they walked through the gorge, they saw many signboards warning visitors of flash floods. Despite this, their guide gave them assurance that they were safe since the last time it flooded was April. Hell’s Gate National Reserve is currently closed in the wake of this tragic incident.