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Floods in India leave almost 200 dead, 860,000 displaced
Hyderabad, India, Aug 9, 2006 Southern Andhra Pradesh state remained the worst hit with 543,000 people displaced by floodwaters and 106 dead in the past week, senior administration official Priyadarshini told AFP. Crops over an area of about 900,000 acres (364,217 hectares) were destroyed and some 71,000 houses destroyed or damaged in six districts, Priyadarshini said in the state capital Hyderabad. Nine air force helicopters and 10 naval boats had been deployed to rescue marooned people and drop food, drinking water, milk sachets and medicines to those still trapped, she said. The chief of India's ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, and federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil were Wednesday to conduct an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in Andhra Pradesh. State Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy said the floods had caused damage amounting to 11 billion rupees (239 million dollars). In western Gujarat state, 190,000 people had been shifted from Surat, famous for its diamond polishing industry, an official from the state flood control room said. "We have the army -- about 300 personnel -- and the air force to help us in the relief work," he added. The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency quoted Surat's police chief Sudhir Sinha as saying the situation was likely to worsen due to high tides in the Gulf of Khambat off the Gujarati coast. Compounding the problem, authorities were planning to release even more water than they already were doing from the overflowing Ukai dam on the river Tapti that flows through Surat, he said. Sinha said six people had died in the floods in Gujarat. "As of now the situation is under control as people are taking shelter on rooftops," he said. PTI said road and rail traffic had been disrupted, with all trains bound for India's financial capital of Mumbai from Gujarat halted due to flooded tracks. In neighbouring Maharashtra state, thousands left homeless by the monsoon rains in 15 of the states's 35 districts were being airdropped food and medicines, a state official said. The death toll due to rains and floods in the province had risen to 62 with 105,000 people displaced, said Bhupathy Pandey, Maharashtra's relief and rehabilitation secretary. People in another 184 villages would need relocation as many of the dams and rivers in the state were overflowing, he added. In the Maoist insurgency-affected tiny central state of Chhattisgarh, 20,000 people had been evacuated to 19 relief camps, an official said. Eight were reported killed in Chhattisgarh and another 15 in Leh, capital of the Buddhist section of Kashmir state, at the weekend. The latest deaths took the nationwide death toll linked to the annual monsoon rains since mid-May to 574, 197 of them in the past eight days alone, according to an AFP tally. burs/er/bpz/sm Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters When the Earth Quakes A world of storm and tempest
Ethiopian flood toll climbs to 224 as hope for missing fade
Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, Aug 9, 2006 Rescue workers have recovered at least 25 bodies in their search for hundreds of people missing from weekend flash floods that devastated an Ethiopian town, officials said Wednesday. |
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