Monsoon Death Toll In India Hits 1,000 - At Least 20 Million Stranded In S. Asian Flooding - AFP

[hatrack]

The death toll caused by monsoon rains in India topped the 1,000 mark on Friday with new victims reported from northern Uttar Pradesh state, officials said.

Twenty-one deaths occurred overnight in three eastern Uttar Pradesh districts hardest hit by the heavy flooding, relief commissioner Umesh Sinha told AFP.

The figures brought to 1,028 the number of people reported killed nationwide in the annual torrential rains that begin in June and last until September, according to figures from officials and media reports. Deaths were also reported in the states of Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.

"The situation is under control now," Sinha said after announcing 1,650 paramilitary and army personnel had been deployed along with civilian rescue teams to help 1.4 million flood-hit people.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/070803111831.wobye9t3.html

Relief teams in India, Bangladesh and Nepal on Thursday battled to bring food, clean drinking water and medicines to nearly 20 million people stranded in massive flooding. More than 1,100 people have died across South Asia since the start of the annual monsoon season in mid-June, with the region's rivers bursting their banks due to relentless rains and snows melting in the Himalayas. Britain and the United Nations have stepped up to assist local authorities, with London pledging 2.5 million dollars in aid and the world body launching emergency relief operations.

Northern and eastern India has borne the brunt of the disaster, with 1,000 people dead and about 14 million villagers in Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states awaiting much-needed aid amid fears that disease could soon spread.

"Whatever baby food I had is now exhausted and there is no alternative other than trying to forcibly feed my daughter boiled rice," 27-year-old Rahima Begum, whose home near the Brahmaputra River in Assam is under water, told AFP. "My son is down with fever and diarrhoea for the last two days," said labourer Bhairab Madhab, who like Begum lives in the village of Senimari. "Getting a doctor is a distant dream with flood waters surrounding us."

Some 5.5 million people have been displaced in Assam, nearly seven million others are stranded in Bihar state, where 3,000 villages have been inundated, officials said. Another 1.5 million have been displaced in Uttar Pradesh.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Aid_Scarce_For_20_Million_Stranded_In_South_Asia_Floods_999.html

[phantom power]

1. I'm trying to picture it. Katrina times 40.

Much more, really, if you only count the number of people who were actually stranded by Katrina floodwaters.