Trains bring drinking water to flooded India
CHENGANNUR (AP) — Indian authorities are bringing drinking water by train to the flooded southern state of Kerala, where over 300 people have died and 300,000 are displaced in the worst flooding in a century.
Weather officials predict more rains across the state until this week.
Indian railway official Milind Deouskar, quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency, says at least two trains carrying about 1.5 million liters of water are moving to the flooded areas from the neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, thousands of stranded people were waiting to be rescued yesterday as heavy rains hit parts of Kerala again yesterday, slowing attempts to deploy rescuers and get relief supplies to isolated areas. Many have seen no help for days and can only be reached by boat or helicopter.
More than 300,000 people have taken shelter in over 1,500 state-run relief camps, officials said. But authorities said they were being inundated with calls for assistance, local media reported.
“We are receiving multiple repetitive rescue requests,” the office of the state’s top official, Pinarayi Vijayan, said Friday in a tweet, asking those in need to provide their exact location and nearby landmarks so rescuers can find them.
Officials have called it the worst flooding in Kerala in a century, with rainfall in some areas well over double that of a typical monsoon season.
The downpours that started Aug. 8 have triggered floods and landslides and caused homes and bridges to collapse across Kerala, a picturesque state known for its quiet tropical backwaters and beautiful beaches.
Officials estimate more than 10,000 kilometers of roads have been damaged. One of the state’s major airports, in the city of Kochi, has been closed.
Meteorologists expect the rains to ease up over the next few days.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Saturday with the state’s top officials, promising more than $70 million in aid. While the central government has dispatched multiple military units to Kerala, state officials are pleading for additional help.