Flash Floods Mudslides kill many in northeast India
Pastor Dale Morgan
Flash Floods Mudslides kill many in northeast India*
GUWAHATI, India, June 14 (AFP) Jun 14, 2008
Several Dozen people were killed and 30 injured Saturday in mudslides
triggered by heavy monsoon rains in India's northeast, officials said.
Rescue work was being hampered by heavy rain, local official Bidul
Payeng told AFP by telephone, adding the death toll could mount further
with at least 10 of the injured in critical condition.
"So far we've recovered 14 dead bodies. Most victims died after hillocks
caved in on their houses," Payeng said.
The casualties occurred in and around Arunachal Pradesh state capital
Itanagar, which was cut off from the rest of the country.
Payeng said there were reports of at least two vehicles falling down a
gorge on the city's outskirts.
"We are unable to carry out rescue operations due to heavy rains. We
don't know how many people were in the vehicles," he said.
In adjoining Assam state, monsoon-triggered flash floods inundated 120
villages, displacing around 30,000 people.
"There were breaches in three major embankments (of the state's main
Brahmaputra river) following heavy rains," district police chief S A
Karim said.
The 2,906-kilometre (1,258-mile)-long Brahmaputra is one of Asia's
largest rivers, crossing through China's Tibet region and India's
northeast before flowing through Bangladesh and emptying into the Bay of
Bengal.
Authorities asked the army to be on standby to give help as weather
officials warned of more rain.
The monsoon rains, which sweep India from June to September, cause
flooding and deaths every year in the densely populated country of more
than 1.1 billion people.