Big Flood In South India Bangalore Killed 200 People

BANGALORE, TimeIsNews.com - Floods from heavy rains killed at least 200 people in five days in South India, destroying crops and causing tens of thousands of people homeless.

At least 167 people were killed in Karnataka state, where several rivers overflowed which makes the soil embankments breached after heavy rains and washed away houses.

“There are dead and damaged all around us.”, says Basavaraj Bommai, a senior government minister in Bangalore, the capital of the southern states.

Authorities say, vast areas of agricultural land, including sugar plantations and paddy fields in the state’s submerged. “The loss of certain plants. Our priority is to provide assistance to thousands of refugees.”, said Home Minister VS Acharya.

He said most of the victims were killed by collapsing homes or swept away the water. More than 100,000 people were left homeless and television pictures showed hundreds of people waved their hands from the roof of the house to the helicopters carrying goods for HELP.

In the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh, at least 33 people were killed and more than 1.8 million people suffered from the floods, officials said. City of cotton trade and Kurnool was the worst, where 15 people were killed in two days and thousands of people displaced, officials said.

“We have evacuated 40,000 people in Kurnool town.”, said Dinesh Kumar, a senior disaster management in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state.

Officials say the death toll could increase because 5,000 people are still trapped in small village areas affected by floods and rescue team members have not been able to reach many villages.

Nearly 1,000 people were killed by floods in India this year, while tens of thousands of people lost their homes and their farms destroyed, said the Red Cross.