Dozens Dead, 600,000 Evacuated as Monsoon Rains Flood India

Eric Chaney
Published: August 22,2016
Dozens of people have died and hundreds of thousands more have been evacuated after monsoon rains have flooded several Indian states.
The rains have pushed the Ganges River and its tributaries to their limits, the Associated Press reports, flooding about 20 districts of the states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Officials told the AP that as of Monday morning at least 17 people have died in Madhya Pradesh, 14 in Bihar and nine in Uttar Pradesh because of drowning, electrocution or injuries from collapsed houses.

Indian children of local boatmen sit on the top of a submerged restroom at Daraganj Ghat as they prepare to jump into the flooded Ganga river in Allahabad on August 18,2016.
(SANJAY KANOJIA/AFP/Getty Images)

Roughly 600,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in a dozen districts in eastern Bihar, the AP reports.
Six rivers are flowing above the danger mark in Bihar, where some residents were forced to the roofs of their homes to escape the rising waters, the BBC reports. Thousands have taken shelter in more than 80 relief camps, but their problems are just beginning one local resident says.
"We are facing a lot of problems, everything has been submerged in river,” a resident in Patna city told Reuters news agency. There is no arrangement of food, drinking water or boats. We don't know what to do.”
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In neighboring Uttar Pradesh, water has been “gushing in the area” for the last three days, a villager told the BBC.
“All the land has been inundated with flood water. All the crops have been damaged. Water has started entering our houses," said a villager, Shyam.

Flood affected people stand on the roof of a submerged house as they wait to be rescued at Kasimpurchak, near Danapur Diara in Patna in eastern Bihar state.
(STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)

The flooding in Uttar Pradesh has forced a halt to cremations at a main riverfront area of the Hindu holy town of Varanasi, District Magistrate Vijay Karan Anand told the AP. Devout Hindus bring dead family members to Varanasi in the belief that being cremated there frees their soul from the cycle of death and rebirth.
The army and air force are on standby because more rain is forecast in the next two days, disaster management official Vyasji, who uses one name, told the AP.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern over the worsening flood situation and promised total support from the central government in rescue and relief operations, The Financial Express reports.
“Centre assures total support in the rescue & relief operations,” he said in a tweet. “I hope the situation in the affected areas normalises at the earliest.”

Indian villagers sit outside their home during flooding after water levels in the River Ganga rose at Salori village in Allahabad on August 21,2016.
(SANJAY KANOJIA/AFP/Getty Images)

But some victims have expressed anger and impatience at the quantity and quality of flood relief efforts thus











































far, News 18 reports.
"At some places, flood victims blocked roads to protest against inadequate relief," an official of disaster management department told the station.
In Begusarai district, flood victims blocked roads for hours demanding adequate relief, and in Nathnagar in Bhagalpur district victims staged a protest demanding the same.

































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