Residents return as floodwaters recede

Gauhati, India – Thousands of hungry and exhausted people waded back to their mudfilled homes from relief camps yesterday as floodwaters began receding in remote northeastern India and Bangladesh.

Nearly 500,000 people took refuge in camps set up in gov- ernment buildings as the worst monsoon floods to hit Assam state in a decade devastated the region, killing 95 people and leaving 14 others missing. More than 100 people have died in Bangladesh.

Soldiers were using helicopters and speedboats to supply food and drinking water to the nearly 2 million people affected by the floods, which began last week, army Lieutenant Colonel N N Joshi said.

With the waters receding, local officials were considering ways to dispose of the rotting carcasses of hundreds of thousands of cattle that perished. Joshi said soldiers and officials would help to bury dead animals to prevent the spread of disease.

Monsoon floods hit Assam, which has a population of 26 million people, almost every year, with heavy rains swelling the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries.