At least 59 people were killed and many others went missing after heavy downpour triggered flash floods devastating Leh in the Ladakh region. 59 bodies have been recovered from the flooded areas, J and K Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda said. Among the dead were three jawans of the Army
Service Corps.

He said a massive rescue operation was underway involving the state police, paramilitary forces and the army in Leh town.

50 CRPF jawans were rescued from the flooded areas, Khoda said.

The BSNL network was completely damaged, besides the runway of the Leh airport, cutting off the town from the rest of the country.

The district hospital and two buildings housing offices of the Union Home Ministry were also affected.

Five villages have been hit in the sudden downpour and flashfloods. These included Choglumsar and Shapoo. Old Leh city was among the worst affected. The main bus stand was flattened.

Leh is located at a height of 11,500 feet above sea level, 424 kilometres from Srinagar. The worst hit was Choglumsar area, 13 kms from here, where 14 bodies were recovered, officials said.

Technology marches ever onward and, as it does, it carries us right along with it. In the early 1980's, as VCR's dropped in price and appeared in more and more homes, there was a sudden mass appeal for people to have their old Super 8 home movies converted to video cassette. Video tapes last far longer than film and it just made sense to convert those old reels into a more watchable and compact format. People brought their movies of their baby's first steps, birthday parties, and weddings and turned them into video tapes. Not long after that, video cameras became cost effective for people to buy and those old super 8 cameras and projectors went the way of the dodo. People began using video tape for everything and the wedding video was born.

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