Pakistan Floods Kill 140, One Million Homeless in India
Planetark.org, Aug. 8, 2006

ISLAMABAD - Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed more than 140 people in Pakistan's northwest, and forced hundreds of thousands out of their homes in neighbouring India, officials said on Monday.

The floods played havoc in five districts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, including two which were badly hit by a devastating earthquake last year, submerging hundreds of villages and causing extensive property damage.

"The situation is worse than last year, as the rains triggered more flash floods this time in our five districts," NWFP Information Minister Asif Iqbal Khan told Reuters.

"The floods have swept away mud houses and people."

By Monday rescuers had recovered 43 bodies in Mardan, the second biggest city in the province, after a bridge overflowing with people collapsed on Saturday.

Iqbal Khan said some 100 people were still missing in the incident.

Around 16,000 mud-brick houses were destroyed or damaged by flooding in several districts, the provincial government said in a statement.

Iqbal Khansaid incessant rains and floods could lead to the spread of diseases like diarrhoea and other respiratory infections, especially among children.

"We are trying our best to provide food and medicines to every affected person but still there is a threat of an epidemic."

The meteorological department warned of floods in the southern Sindh province, and local authorities have been ordered to evacuate people living on river banks and low-lying areas.

Torrential rains and heavy flooding have already caused extensive damage in Pakistani Kashmir, parts of which were also hit by last year's earthquake, forcing some 6,000 people living in mountain areas to move to camps.

INDIA

In neighbouring India, authorities used helicopters to drop food and water to some of the hundreds of thousands of people forced from their homes by floods in the country's south and west, as rains disrupted life in the nation's financial capital.

In the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where 100 people have died in four days of torrential monsoon rains, swollen rivers have swamped hundreds of towns and villages, forcing people to take refuge on rooftops and in trees, officials said.

Authorities say at least one million people have been displaced and rescuers were using boats to reach those stranded in the three districts of the state.

In the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, heavy showers in the last two days have killed at least 21 people, damaged crops and disrupted life in the financial capital Mumbai.

Millions waded to work in Mumbai through muddy water waist deep in places.

Roads and railway tracks were flooded after the city's drainage system failed to flush out storm water.

Suburban train services -- the transport mainstay for the city's 17 million people -- were running behind schedule. Some long distance trains had been rescheduled, but flights were operating on time

Half A Million Homeless in India Floods, Mumbai Hit

Planetark.org, Aug. 7, 2006

HYDERABAD, India- Rescuers in India stepped up efforts on Sunday to help hundreds of thousands of people forced from their homes by floods in a southern state as torrential rain hit the country's financial capital.

In southern Andhra Pradesh the death toll from three days of monsoon storms rose to 80, officials said, as 18 people drowned, were electrocuted or killed as houses collapsed overnight.

A jeep carrying 12 people was washed away by a swollen stream in Araku village, 540 km (335 miles) northeast of state capital, Hyderabad, late on Saturday.

But relief and rescue operations picked up as rains subsided in most parts of the state. Two airforce helicopters and a dozen speedboats were taking food to nearly 1,000 villages and parts of some towns cut off by the floods.

"Rains are receding. Except in some parts of Telengana, rains are almost over in the state," said M. Satyakumar, director of the Hyderabad Meteorological Centre.

"Over half a million people living in low-lying areas of 12 river front districts have been displaced due to the three-day downpour and flooding," Ponnala Lakshmaiah, the state's irrigation minister, told Reuters.

Naval helicopters and coast guard boats were searching for 150 missing fishermen who went to sea last week despite warnings, officials added. Earlier they had said 60 fishermen were missing.

In western Maharashtra, thousands of people were being evacuated from Nanded district, about 650 km (400 miles) east of the state capital, Mumbai, after 25 villages were cut off by heavy rains.

Relief officials said rescuers were using boats to rescue those who

had climbed up trees or on to rooftops.

In Mumbai, traffic crawled in the city's western and northern suburbs which were under two feet of water.

Officials said the city's suburban trains were running about 15 minutes late and some services had been suspended. Flights were being delayed by up to half an hour.

"The met office has predicted more rains. We are already on alert. Our disaster management team is working to drain out the water," V.V. Vaidya, the city's chief disaster management officer told Reuters.

Nearly every year, annual monsoon rains, vital for India's farmers and overall economic growth, kill hundreds of people. A year ago, floods in Mumbai, India's richest city, killed hundreds of people and paralysed the city for nearly a week.