Overall, Sikkim now has 28 relief camps, that house around 6,487 people. The district with the most such camps is Gangtok, with 10 camps.

Also read: Sikkim floods: A long wait for survivors as bad weather halts rescue operation

At 2 am on Wednesday, the flood waters swirled around Khan’s home in Lal Bazaar area, and they had very little time to save themselves. “We all rushed out of our houses to reach higher ground. But in the melee I lost my father. He was washed away by the flood waters. I lost my mother a few years ago and now he is gone. I have been left alone,” Khan said.

Bereaved and lonely, Khan stares at an uncertain future. “I was unable to bring anything out – documents, clothes, money. My house at Lal Bazar is gone. I don’t know where to go or what to do after this. I will not be able to stay here forever,” she said. On her body, are the same clothes she escaped her home in.

30 kilometres away from the state’s capital Gangtok, the three storey school building, that once held within it the cacophony of 1400 school children, now has every room occupied by bedraggled residents that no longer have safe homes. SK Pradhan, principal of the school said all ten class rooms on the first and second floors as well as the auditorium on the third have all been opened for flood victims. One staff room has been allotted to police personnel that live there as night guards.

And numbers are swelling. On Wednesday, the shelter only had 318 people. By Saturday, it was 639. “After the flood my husband, two daughters and I took shelter in a relatives home. But we decided to move in to the flood shelter because we thought the relative was going through too much for us in their one room home. Our residence at Adarsh Gaon has been washed away. Every day my husband goes to check if anything can be done to restore and rebuilt the house, but I am always scared because who knows how safe it will be,” said Smriti Pradhan.

Tables, once used by school children to study, are now demarcating boundaries between families. Some sleep on mattresses; others just on the floor with a bedsheet. The government has arranged for food twice a day, as well as a cup of tea and biscuits in the morning.

With the school closed, its 50 teaching staff and as many students now work from 7 am to 8 pm as volunteers. “Even though the school is closed, we go there every day, to serve the victims. We give them food and water and do whatever is needed like cleaning the rooms. I am happy to help them because they are in distress,” said Rancho Gurung, a student of class VII and the youngest of the volunteers, who aspires to join the army in future.

Among the various desks that have been set up by the school authorities, one is occupied by a legal team from the state government that helps victims fill up forms, lodge police complaints- required for duplicates of marksheets, identity cards, certificates and bank documents. A team of doctors has also been posted. “When new victims come in, we need to ensure he is not suffering from an infectious disease. One person who arrived was suffering from tuberculosis and had to be immediately shifted to a hospital,” one volunteer said.