It was late at night when the priest raised the alarm . Heavy rain was falling on Gobindghat , a town in the foothills of the Himalayas where Sikh pilgrims stop on their way to a holy site farther into the mountains . A monsoon deluge had swept in earlier and heavier than usual in this part of northern India , bringing a risk of floods . But before residents and pilgrims in the town could heed the priest 's warning , water had engulfed the town . `` Some people climbed upwards , some ran here and there , '' said Gurjit Singh , who had traveled to Gobindghat with his 12-year-old son . `` It was chaos . '' Barrages of water , mud and rocks have hit scores of towns and villages in the Indian state of Uttarakhand in the past week , inundating homes , shrines , roads and vehicles . Uttarakhand 's chief minister , Vijay Bahuguna , has described the disaster as a `` Himalayan tsunami . '' Dotted with temples and often referred to as `` the Land of Gods , '' Uttarakhand attracts large numbers of pilgrims from around India to its mountainous reaches . Those travelers , many of them far from home and short on belongings , are now caught up in the destruction . Thousands of rescue workers are trying to reach more than 50,000 people cut off by the waters . Bahuguna told CNN 's sister network CNN-IBN on Friday night that the death toll was 556 but could rise . The bodies `` were either buried or floating in slush , '' he said . It will take 15 days to complete evacuations in the province , he added . Other parts of northern India , including New Delhi , have also been hit by flooding , but Uttarakhand has suffered the worst of the devastation . The rains over the region have eased in the past few days , aiding in the rescue of about 30,000 people , Bahuguna said . ' A second life ' `` There was nothing but death in front of us , '' Singh said Thursday after getting out of a crowded car ferrying people to dry , flat land . `` Now that we 've got out , we feel like we 've got a second life . '' His son , Rana Udesh Pratap , said the trek to safety was long . `` I held my father 's hand and walked and walked and walked on a narrow path , '' he said . The two had made a pilgrimage to Uttarakhand from the nearby state of Punjab to visit the Sikh Hemkunt Sahib shrine . Others were still struggling with what they had endured . A man named Kailash told CNN-IBN that he , his wife and 4-year-old son did n't know how they were going to get back to their home in Jodhpur , hundreds of kilometers to the southwest . `` We do n't have a penny , how will we reach home ? '' he asked , explaining that his family had gone hungry for three days before they were evacuated to a hospital in the town of Rudrapyrayag . They had been in Kedarnath , a centuries-old Hindu holy town at the heart of the destruction . Pictures show the town 's temple surrounded by mud and rocks . Kailash recalled what he and his family endured before they were flown out . `` We had to walk over dead bodies , '' he said . `` Nothing is left there , everything is finished . We ca n't even find our relatives . '' A search for the missing . Others were searching for relatives amid the chaos . A Facebook page for rescue and relief in Uttarakhand was peppered with pleas for help in finding people . `` It is with great hope that I am writing to you to alleviate the distress of my family , '' wrote Shantalu Srivastava in a post seeking information about his brother , sister-in-law and two nieces . Srivastava said that the family had traveled to Kedarnath from Lucknow , in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh , and that he had last heard from them Sunday . The national government has dispatched the army to help with rescue efforts and promised 10 billion rupees ( $ 170 million ) in disaster relief funds to the Uttarakhand government . Some observers are saying the disaster was man-made . Devinder Sharma , an environmentalist , blamed industrial activity in India 's Himalayan region . `` This havoc is a result of massive deforestation and mining , '' he said . `` It 's an ecocide . ''
`` We had to walk over dead bodies , '' says one survivor . Severe flooding has left more than 50,000 people stranded in northern India . Authorities put the death toll at more than 500 but say they fear it will rise . Many people are searching for people lost in the chaos .