Floods ravage South Asia, millions are marooned

GUWAHATI, India – Landslides triggered by heavy rains buried at least 12 people in their homes while 19 people drowned in surging river waters as floods ravaged low-lying parts of South Asia yesterday.

More than seven million people have been marooned or left homeless in villages and towns across eastern India, Nepal and Bangladesh after annual monsoon floods swamped large areas. “My family and I are forced to live on the roof,” said Chandrakant Jha of Darbhanga, 180 km north of Patna, the capital of India’s eastern state of Bihar.Authorities said they were bracing for more flooding as dozens of rivers threaten to burst their banks.Government helicopters dropped packages of food and relief material such as tarpaulin sheets to thousands of villagers in Nepal and India, where thousands were stranded on rooftops.More than 180 people have died in densely-populated South Asia since the start of July as heavy monsoon rains caused dozens of rivers to overflow their embankments and set off landslides.Officials in India’s tea-rich north-eastern state of Assam, where around two million people have lost their homes because of flooding in the past week, said they found it hard to cope with the sheer scale of floods.”The state is not adequately equipped to handle the rescue and relief operations,” said Tarun Gogoi, chief minister of Assam, who appealed for international assistance on Monday.People negotiated flooded areas of Assam in boats made from the trunks of banana trees and bamboos, and loaded with clothes and cooking utensils.In Bihar, where dozens have died in flooding over the past week and more than a million people have been left homeless, many areas had no electricity and soldiers in boats rescued stranded people.- Nampa-Reuters”My family and I are forced to live on the roof,” said Chandrakant Jha of Darbhanga, 180 km north of Patna, the capital of India’s eastern state of Bihar.Authorities said they were bracing for more flooding as dozens of rivers threaten to burst their banks.Government helicopters dropped packages of food and relief material such as tarpaulin sheets to thousands of villagers in Nepal and India, where thousands were stranded on rooftops.More than 180 people have died in densely-populated South Asia since the start of July as heavy monsoon rains caused dozens of rivers to overflow their embankments and set off landslides.Officials in India’s tea-rich north-eastern state of Assam, where around two million people have lost their homes because of flooding in the past week, said they found it hard to cope with the sheer scale of floods.”The state is not adequately equipped to handle the rescue and relief operations,” said Tarun Gogoi, chief minister of Assam, who appealed for international assistance on Monday.People negotiated flooded areas of Assam in boats made from the trunks of banana trees and bamboos, and loaded with clothes and cooking utensils.In Bihar, where dozens have died in flooding over the past week and more than a million people have been left homeless, many areas had no electricity and soldiers in boats rescued stranded people.- Nampa-Reuters