The floods on June 16 and 17 tore through Kedarnath, a sacred Hindu site high in the Himalayas. Hundreds of buiidngs in the Mandakini River floodplain were washed away. The Kedarnath temple survived, guarded by a big trailer-size boulder that washed down the mountain and lodged in front, directing flood waters and boulders around the 1,200-year-old shrine.