Actual situation about the flood in Mayapur-- CNN

September 27, 2000

Floods kill over 700, millions homeless in India, Bangladesh

People cling to a truck as it makes its way through the flooded streets of

Guskara, 124 miles (200 kilometers) north of Calcutta

September 26, 2000

Web posted at: 12:11 p.m. HKT (0411 GMT)

CALCUTTA, India (AP) -- Rescue crews used boats and military helicopters

Monday to help some of the millions of people washed out of their homes by

floods believed to have killed more than 700 in India and Bangladesh.

Authorities were to trying to ferry victims to higher ground, but most

remained marooned atop buildings. Air force helicopters were dropping food

and water purification packets.

The vast majority of the deaths have been in India, but the toll in both

countries was expected to rise, and waterborne diseases were said to be

breaking out.

"The task is gigantic. There are many villages that have been cut off as

floods inundated roads," Sohel Ahsan, a relief worker in Bangladesh, said in

a telephone interview.

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Nature's wrath

Almost all the districts on either side of the southern India-Bangladesh

border have been ravaged since Sept. 18, when late monsoon rains sent sudden

water over riverbanks and dams. The floods have submerged highways, villages

and the homes of more than 10 million people in eastern India and 200,000 in

Bangladesh, authorities say.

In the Indian state of West Bengal, 652 people were feared dead, more than

half of them in Murshidabad district, said Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, the

state's deputy chief minister. The death toll rose to 39 on Monday in the

neighboring state of Bihar.

Bhattacharjee, who made an aerial survey Monday of the worst-hit areas of

West Bengal, said 435 bodies had been recovered and 217 more people were

washed away by the strong currents. There was scant hope of their survival,

he said.

Most of the deaths occurred when people fleeing the rising flood waters were

washed away, relief officials said. Some victims succumbed to diarrhea from

drinking contaminated water, others were bitten by snakes.

Hundreds of displaced villagers wait for the distribution of food at

Guskara, 123 miles (200 kilometers) north of Calcutta

Many of the survivors were hungry and desperate. In one town, police had to

fire in the air to disperse people who were stealing food and other relief

materials from a railway station.

The army was helping supply food and water to the worst-hit districts in

Bihar, as complaints poured in about inadequate supplies of food, fuel and

plastic sheets needed to put up temporary shelters, district officials said.

But relief and rescue operations were hampered by Bihar Chief Minister Rabri

Devi's announcement that $1,100 would be given to families of those who died

in the floods, an official said on condition of anonymity. People scuffled

with each other to list the names of their dead family members, and one

person was shot and killed Sunday in the fighting.

In Bangladesh, at least 15 people have died in the flooding, authorities

said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered the army and paramilitary troops to

join relief and rescue work after swirling flood waters damaged or washed

away about 40,000 mud-and-straw huts, leaving at least 200,000 people

homeless.

While soldiers and relief workers struggled to reach the tens of thousands

of people marooned in their submerged villages, many people used boats or

waded through water to reach high ground.

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Actual situation about the flood in Mayapur-- CNN

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