Fresh floods in India claim sixteen lives

Sunday, September 21, 2008 

Image of Mahanadi River.
Image: NASA.

Floods in the eastern state of Orissa in India have left 16 dead. Over 180,000 people have been evacuated to safer places, while hundreds of others have taken shelter on national highway and cyclone shelters. The flood, described as the worst since 1982 by officials, has marooned 191 villages. The rising Mahanadi river over flowed at Mundali along 28 breaches to inundate and cut off several villages.

A total of 1.5 million people living in 17 out of 30 districts of Orissa have been affected. Crop areas of over 2,470 square kilometers have been inundated. Cuttack, Kendrapara, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts are worst affected. All major state rivers and their tributaries are flowing above the danger level due to the heavy monsoon rains.

The new flooding comes just weeks after Kosi river that flows from Nepal to India, burst its embankment and submerged nearly 1,000 villages in the neighboring state of Bihar in the north, killing at least 48 people and driving more than a million others from their homes. "The worst is yet to come," said Benudhar Dash, Additional Relief Commissioner of Orissa.

Related news

• "50,000 people refuse evacuation after flooding in India caused by river changing course" — Wikinews, September 9, 2008

Sources

• "Four die in Orissa floods, worst yet to come" — Hindustan Times, September 19, 2008
• "Orissa floods hit lakhs" — The Statesman, September 20, 2008
• "India floods, rain kill at least 32" — Agence France-Presse, September 20, 2008
• "16 Dead, 220,000 Stranded in Flooding in Eastern India" — Foxnews.com, September 20, 2008