Grim tales of death, destruction and food shortages poured out of Uttarakhand on Thursday as about 70,000 people still remained trapped in the flood-ravaged hills waiting to be rescued.With the magnitude of the misery caused by weekend torrential rains and flash floods becoming clear, officials admitted it may take three years or so for pilgrimages to resume to the revered Kedarnath shrine.B.D. Singh, chief executive officer of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee, said: "What we are seeing is very painful and unbelievable. We don't expect the Char Dham Yatra to resume in the next three years."Another official said the Kedarnath shrine, built by Adi Shankara over 1,000 years back, survived the devastating floods but virtually everything around it had been destroyed."Call it a miracle but the Nandi statue and the other idols in the temple are intact," the official told IANS. "Pilgrims who were in the temple when the disaster struck also survived."But the destruction all around the temple has been terrible," he said, adding the death toll in the floods and cloudburst could be much more than the officially stated 150.Military, paramilitary and civilian authorities were engaged in a massive rescue operation in the state but one officer said the weather was unfriendly for rescue by air.Many of those stranded were moved to Rishikesh near Haridwar. The highways linking Rishikesh to Joshimath and Uttarkashi were now open.Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has described the flood fury as a "Himalayan tsunami" and said he was numbed by the magnitude of the death and destruction.He said many kilometres of roads had been washed away. Many bridges, houses, water lines, canals, check dams, electricity lines, power houses and other public and private property had been severely damaged.In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed to people to generously donate to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund to help Uttarakhand's people.More than 20 helicopters are engaged in rescuing those stranded, including pilgrims on their way to or returning from the Kedarnath shrine.Officials said that while the evacuation process had been fast-tracked, more than 70,000 people were still stranded at various places in the hill state.More than four days after the cloudburst and incessant rains led to misery, the thousands caught up at various places were faced with lack of potable water, food and power.The Supreme Court directed the Central and Uttarakhand governments to provide immediate relief to the flood-affected and arrange for air-lifting the stranded people.