Hundreds dead and thousands await rescue in flood-hit Kerala
● Worst deluge in a century devastates state, with 800,000 left homeless
An estimated 800,000 people have been displaced and over 350 have died in the worst flooding in India in a century.
Rescuers are searching for people stranded in the worstaffected areas of the southern state of Kerala, after downpours 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.
Thousands of rescuers continued efforts to reach stranded people yesterday and get relief supplies to isolated areas by hundreds of boats and nearly two dozen helicopters.
An estimated 800,000 people have taken shelter in around 4,000 relief camps across Kerala.
Weather officials have preareas dicted more rains across the state early this week. A top disaster management official in Kerala said weather conditions had improved considerably and expected the nearly 10,000 people still stranded to be rescued early this week.
In several villages in the suburbs of Chengannur, one of the worst-affected areas, carcasses of dead cattle were seen floating in muddy waters as water began receding. However, vast rice fields continued to be marooned and many vehicles were submerged.
In some villages, the floodwaters had entered homes. Rescuers in a motorboat reached a hamlet where they tried in vain to persuade an 80-year-old woman to be taken to a government-run shelter from her partially submerged single-story house.
Bhavani Yamma said: “I will not come. this is my home and I will die here.”
The team later rescued a 61-year-old kidney ailment patient who needs dialysis twice a week.
Officials have called it the worst flooding in Kerala in a century, with rainfall in some
well over double that of a typical monsoon season.
One of the rescuers, a police constable said: “We didn’t anticipate it would be such a big disaster.” But he said that by Wednesday “we realised it’s really big”.
At least two trains carrying about 1.5 million litres of fresh water moved to the flooded areas from the nearby states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra yesterday.
After one of the trains arrived, Kurian, a disaster management official,
said authorities had largely restored the state’s water supply systems. “What we need right now is bottled water, which is easy to transport to remote and isolated places, where some people are still stranded.”
Officials estimate that more than 10,000 kilometers of roads have been damaged. One of the state’s major airports, in the city of Kochi, was closed last Tuesday due to the flooding. It is scheduled to remain closed until late August.
The Indian government said a naval air base in Kochi would be opened for commercial flights starting today.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspected the flooded landscape from a helicopter on Saturday and met with the state’s top officials, promising more than £55 million in aid.
The central government has dispatched multiple military units to Kerala. State officials are pleading for additional help.
Officials have put storm damage estimates at nearly £2.4 billion.
At least 250 people have died in the flooding in a little over a week, with 31 others missing. More than 1,000 people have died in flooding in seven Indian states since the start of the monsoon season, including over 350 in Kerala.
In Vatican City, Pope Francis held a moment of silence during his noontime blessing for Kerala flood victims.
“I am close to the church in Kerala, on the front lines in providing aid to the people,” He called for solidarity and “the concrete assistance of the international community.”