Heavy Rains -Floods push India death toll to nearly 500
Pastor Dale Morgan
Heavy Rains -Floods push India death toll to nearly 500*
NEW DELHI, July 4 (AFP) Jul 04, 2007
The death toll from this year's monsoon climbed to 474 on Wednesday as
blinding rains lashed eastern India, according to officials and media
reports.
Two more deaths in the past 24 hours pushed the death toll to 13 in
drenched West Bengal, officials said in state capital Kolkata where
knee-deep flood waters invaded homes and offices.
The city of 16 million people had received 300 millimetres (11.8 inches)
of rainfall since Monday, the weather office said, and warned a
depression brewing in the nearby Bay of Bengal was likely to soak the
city on Thursday as well.
"Heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected in the next 24 hours," a
weather department spokesman said as rowboats ferried food and drinking
water to stranded residents across swathes of congested Kolkata.
But the western state of Maharashtra was worst-hit with the latest
casualties put at 358, the Press Trust of India reported, quoting the
area's relief minister Patangrao Kadam.
In adjoining Gujarat province 14 more deaths pushed up the local toll to 98.
Twenty-seven towns were were affected by the deluge which also disrupted
life in state capital Mumbai, Kadam told reporters, although the
situation now had improved.
Five rain deaths have been reported from central Madhya Pradesh, other
officials said.
State authorities painted a grim picture in Gujarat where 165 people
were marooned in worst-hit Patan district which had received 280
millimetres (11 inches) of non-stop rains since Tuesday, the Press Trust
of India said.
Some 43,000 people have been evacuated from districts inundated by the
rains which grew heavier in mid-June in Gujarat, said the Indian
military, which was readying naval boats for large-scale rescue operations.
In Gujarat, the districts of Amreli, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar and Junagadh
were among the worst hit, relief department officials said, and warned
several reservoirs were brimming.
The monsoon rains, which sweep India from June to September, regularly
disrupt life and often cause flooding and deaths in the densely
populated country of a billion-plus people.