Nearly 3 million displaced as fresh floods devastate northeast India
The Associated Press
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
GAUHATI, India: India deployed its army to rescue thousands of people cut off by flooding in the northeastern state of Assam where incessant rains over the last week have displaced about 3 million villagers, officials said Tuesday.
"The situation has deteriorated with fresh rains during the past week flooding rivers and displacing three million more people, forcing us to engage the army and the paramilitary to rescue marooned people," Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, the state's highest elected official, told The Associated Press.
Since July, more than 10 million people have been displaced by floods in Assam.
Gogoi, who reviewed the situation with local officials on Monday, said that more than 9,000 of Assam's 23,000 villages have been inundated, forcing people out of their homes and on to higher ground.
More than 60 people have died in the floods since July, 10 of them in the past week, local officials have said.
"The government has opened more than 500 relief camps, but thousands of people still remain in makeshift shelters on higher ground near their homes," Bhumidhar Barman, a senior government minister, said.
In mid-August the rains abated and the water level of the Brahmaputra, the region's main river, and its tributaries receded, but heavy rains over the past week have led to fresh flooding.
There was no rain in most parts of Assam on Tuesday.
The Brahmaputra, which originates in Tibet as the Tsangpo, traverses 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) across the Assam plains before culminating in the Bay of Bengal. This river and its innumerable tributaries flood their banks every monsoon season bringing misery to Assam's 26 million people.
During the last major floods in 2004, more than 200 people died in the state.
Monsoon rains usually hit India from June to September. They are vital to farmers but are also deadly. During this year's monsoon season, more than 2,200 people have been killed by flooding, collapsing houses and other rain-related incidents across India.
The Associated Press
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
GAUHATI, India: India deployed its army to rescue thousands of people cut off by flooding in the northeastern state of Assam where incessant rains over the last week have displaced about 3 million villagers, officials said Tuesday.
"The situation has deteriorated with fresh rains during the past week flooding rivers and displacing three million more people, forcing us to engage the army and the paramilitary to rescue marooned people," Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, the state's highest elected official, told The Associated Press.
Since July, more than 10 million people have been displaced by floods in Assam.
Gogoi, who reviewed the situation with local officials on Monday, said that more than 9,000 of Assam's 23,000 villages have been inundated, forcing people out of their homes and on to higher ground.
More than 60 people have died in the floods since July, 10 of them in the past week, local officials have said.
"The government has opened more than 500 relief camps, but thousands of people still remain in makeshift shelters on higher ground near their homes," Bhumidhar Barman, a senior government minister, said.
In mid-August the rains abated and the water level of the Brahmaputra, the region's main river, and its tributaries receded, but heavy rains over the past week have led to fresh flooding.
There was no rain in most parts of Assam on Tuesday.
The Brahmaputra, which originates in Tibet as the Tsangpo, traverses 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) across the Assam plains before culminating in the Bay of Bengal. This river and its innumerable tributaries flood their banks every monsoon season bringing misery to Assam's 26 million people.
During the last major floods in 2004, more than 200 people died in the state.
Monsoon rains usually hit India from June to September. They are vital to farmers but are also deadly. During this year's monsoon season, more than 2,200 people have been killed by flooding, collapsing houses and other rain-related incidents across India.
For My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways, my ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 55:89).
