Clean-up starts as floods toll reaches 198
RESCUERS waded through waistdeep mud in western India on Monday (26) to reach injured residents and start a massive clean-up as the death toll from monsoon-triggered landslides and floods climbed to 198.
In the worst-hit state of Maharashtra, rescuers halted search operations in the hillside village of Taliye, southeast of Mumbai, where 53 bodies have been recovered. Local authorities said efforts to retrieve the bodies of 31 others still missing – after a massive landslide brought down dozens of homes last Thursday (22) – would cease, with their names counted among the dead.
India’s west coast was hit by severe rainstorms over several days, with a quarter of a million people evacuated from their homes in three states and power cut across vast areas.
Experts said climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of the annual deluge – which is critical to replenishing rivers and groundwater but also causes widespread death and destruction. “The focus has now shifted to evacuating the injured and restoring electricity as water levels recede,” a National Disaster Relief Force spokesperson said.
“The rainfall has stopped in most places and water levels have receded. We are helping with clean-up, relief and restoration.”
In the district of Satara neighbouring Taliye, at least 29 people were killed in multiple landslides.
And in Chiplun, 24 hours of uninterrupted rain caused water levels to rise by nearly 20 feet (six metres) last Thursday. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray last Sunday (25) described what happened as “unimaginable”.
Neighbouring Goa’s chief minister Pramod Sawant said the floods were the worst since 1982, with one woman feared drowned.
Further south in Karnataka state, nine people died in flooding and four others were missing, officials reported. Authorities were trying to restore power to the affected districts.