Floods Kill Hundreds In South Asia

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.