Millions homeless as Indian floods worsen
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wednesday August 9, 4:31 PM Reuters*
Millions homeless as Indian floods worsen*
AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - Swollen rivers swamped thousands of
villages and towns across India's south and west on Wednesday, forcing
4.5 million from their homes as rescuers struggled to bring them food
and drinking water, officials said.
India's annual monsoon rains -- vital for the country's
agriculture-driven economy -- have triggered floods across at least five
states since the weekend, killing around 200 people, submerging villages
and causing widespread damage to crops.
In the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, military boats and
helicopters continued to reach out to thousands who remained marooned on
trees and rooftops, many without food and water, after rivers burst
their banks and flooded homes.
In Gujarat, scores of villages and the industrial town of Surat, known
for its diamond-cutting and textile trades, went without power as
floodwaters inundated the region, leaving around three million people
homeless.
"We screamed out when we saw the soldiers, they saved our lives," said
Mulji Devalia, a Surat resident, whose two-storey house was completely
submerged by floodwaters.
Indian television channels said 90 percent of the town was submerged and
showed pictures of people wading through waist-high water and vehicles
almost totally submerged.
Officials said phone lines were down and there was an acute shortage of
drinking water. Full-scale relief operations would begin once water
levels receded, the officials added.
"It is very tough to reach out to the needy, the water level is rising
minute by minute," said local administrator Vatsala Vasudev.
Industrial production has been badly affected in the nearby coastal city
of Hazira, with Oil and Natural Gas Corp.'s gas plant flooded and
production disrupted at a petrochemicals complex run by Reliance
Industries Ltd..
In the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, some 6,000 villages have been
flooded, leaving around 1.5 million homeless and forcing thousands into
trees and onto rooftops.
"We haven't eaten for three days and the children are crying because of
hunger and thirst," one resident of a flood-affected village told
Reuters by telephone.
Other stranded villagers said they were suffering from fever, diarrhoea
and vomiting.
"The situation is terrible. The area under submergence is increasing
every hour due to the backwaters," said M. V. P. C. Sastry, a senior
flood official, adding that military helicopters were dropping food
packets and water rations to the marooned.
In many areas, villagers were taking turns through the night to watch
over water levels. At least 350 villages had been completely cut off.
Sonia Gandhi, the head of the ruling Congress party, was expected to
visit the flood-affected areas in the state on Wednesday, with Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh expected to tour Gujarat and Maharashtra the
following day.
(Reporting by S. Radha Kumar in HYDERABAD, Rupam Jain Nair in AHMEDABAD
and Krittivas Mukherjee in MUMBAI)