As flooding
receded, the army worked Sunday to deliver food and fresh water
to millions marooned in eastern India after six days of rain submerged
the countryside and left an estimated 373 dead or missing, officials
said.
Soldiers took
hundreds of boats into the countryside to rescue people from their
rooftops. Rescue efforts, hampered previously because of downed
roads and rail lines, were back in full swing, officials said.
Up to 13 million
people were left stranded, said Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, the deputy
chief minister of West Bengal, one of the worst affected states.
India is a densely populated country of 1 billion people.
Military helicopters
dropped food and supplies to as many as they could reach. Many
flood victims were forced to seek shelter on roads, railway tracks
and embankments, a relief and rehabilitation department official
said.
Rail service
and power supplies were to be restored soon, officials said. Some
of the towns and villages submerged by the incessant rain were
limping back to life Sunday, West Bengal Finance Minister Asim
Dasgupta said. The water level of many rivers that were previously
flowing above the danger mark had come down or remained steady,
he said.
In the neighboring
state of Bihar, several rivers overflowed their banks, killing
30 people, officials said.
To the east,
in Bangladesh, swirling flood water from rivers in the northwest
breached mud embankments and swamped scores of villages, forcing
at least 60,000 people to flee their homes, relief officials said.
Another 250,000
people were marooned in more than 100 farming villages in the
Rajshahi, Meherpur, Chapainawabganj and Chuadanga districts, said
Mohammad Kamrul Islam, the area's administrator.
Four children
drowned in three villages of Chuadanga district, raising the death
toll for the week to nine, Islam said.
The region,
145 miles northwest of Dhaka, parallels the flood-stricken villages
of the India's West Bengal state.
Bangladesh,
a low-lying delta nation of 130 million people, is buffeted by
floods and cyclones every year. But floods are rare in the country's
northwestern region, which is now being ravaged by torrential
rain.
``The sudden
floods have caught us unprepared,'' said Islam, who is supervising
the relief work.
``This is
for the first time we have seen such a big flood,'' Ali Gazi,
a 60-year-old farmer in Meherpur district, told Dhaka's Bhorer
Kagaj newspaper.
Standing rice
crops were submerged and hundreds of cows and goats have died.
Many farmers were not able to transport livestock to safety, said
Mohammad Mohsin, a relief worker.
The floods
were likely to intensify, Dhaka's Flood Forecasting and Warning
Center predicted Sunday. The Padma and Mahananda Rivers threatened
to swell over their banks because of torrential rain.
Relief workers
struggled to reach villagers trapped in inundated homes, but were
frustrated by a shortage of boats. There is also not enough food
to distribute among the homeless who have taken shelter on higher
ground, Mohsin said.
In Dhaka,
the capital city, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered officials
to reach the flood-stricken areas with food, medicine and water-purification
tablets, her office said.
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