Prisoners Swim to Escape in South Asia Flood Chaos
Date: 16-Jul-04
Country: BANGLADESH
Author: Nizam Ahmed
Over eight million people have been marooned or left homeless in eastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal as heavy rains caused dozens of rivers to overflow into densely populated areas since the start of the month.
"For the last three days, we have been starving and have not received anything from the government," Madhu Sarma told Reuters on the outskirts of Guwahati, the main city in India's flood-hit state of Assam. "My children are crying in hunger."
Sarma sat with her three children on a highway surrounded by flooded fields along with hundreds of others who had lost their homes.
The flooding in South Asia comes amid rainy season disasters elsewhere in Asia.
This week, torrential rains killed eight people in northern Japan and forced the evacuation of thousands. More than 22 people died in Taiwan and at least a dozen were missing in floods and landslides triggered by Typhoon Mindulle in early July. Floods killed dozens in southern China late last month.
But the worst hit part of the continent is South Asia where 240 people have died in drownings, snakebites and landslides as monsoon rains lashed the largely low-lying region since the start of July.
JAILHOUSE CHAOS
In the impoverished Indian state of Bihar, where huge tracts of land are under water, 34 jail inmates in the town of Darbhanga escaped by swimming out while prisoners were being evacuated from the flooded prison.
"The prisoners took advantage of the chaotic situation as over 600 prisoners were being taken to the first floor," said senior Bihar government official Pradeep Kumar.
In several areas, people complained of food and medicine shortages as overflowing rivers swamped roads and rail tracks and cut the movement of commodities.
Helicopters dropped food packets and medicines to hundreds of flooded villages causing a mad scramble and authorities reported stray cases of looting of food.
In Guwahati town, overnight flooding left thousands of cars stranded on water-logged streets. Around 70 people have drowned in Assam since early July due to flooding. In flood-prone Bangladesh, around 50 people were missing after the Jamuna river burst its bank and swept through a village near Bogra town 155 miles northwest of Dhaka.
"At least 50 people were missing after a village with 250 homes was completely washed away by Jamuna Wednesday," Moinul Hasan, a village head from the area, told reporters.
Flooding had also hit the country's standing crop - including the mainstay rice crop - submerging 1 million acres.
Across the region, lives have been shattered.
In Himalayan Nepal, where two people died in flooding overnight, Binay Kumar Thakur was distraught.
"Everything I had is washed away by floods. I have been ruined," 35-year-old Thakur said from Singaimadan village, 280 miles southeast of Kathmandu.
"The place where my hut stood is now under deep water. My family escaped with whatever clothes they were wearing."
