New Delhi, Aug. 2 -- Srinagar: Around 3.30 pm on 21 July, 22-year-old Aadil Qayoom Wani had just returned to his hosiery and garments shop in Beerwah, Budgam district, after buying fresh stock worth Rs.1.5 lakh. He had barely settled down with a cup of tea when people began shouting that water was rushing down the Sukhnag stream.

Within minutes the stream became a roaring torrent. "There was not enough time to remove anything from the shop. We barely managed to save our lives," Wani recalled.

The two-storey shopping complex worth crores of rupees, which his family built in 2011 along the Sukhnag embankment, had survived the 2014 floods undamaged. This time the water undercut its foundation and the structure collapsed into the torrent. M...