Weather

Disaster Prevention and Management

ISSN: 0965-3562

Article publication date: 1 December 1999

201

Keywords

Citation

(1999), "Weather", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.07308eac.004

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:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited


Weather

Weather

23 August 1998 - Dhaka, Bangladesh

Bangladesh today issued an appeal for international aid for millions of people left marooned or homeless by the country's worst floods in ten years. "Bangladesh will welcome any form of assistance from any government, international agencies and development partners," Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad told foreign diplomats and representatives of donor agencies in Dhaka. Disaster management officials said today the death toll stood at 371. They said 57 people had died of diarrhoea, while the rest drowned or were killed by mudslides, snake bites or when their homes collapsed. Azad said the full extent of damage would be known only after the floodwater had receded but preliminary estimates suggested the need of "huge resources". Azad said 43 of the country's 64 administrative districts were now affected and that conditions in 14 of the districts worsened today. Officials said the "unexpectedly long duration" of the flooding was partly caused by a rush of water from neighbouring India. There were no significant reports of rainfall today, except in the northern district of Rajshahi, but some of the major rivers including the Padma, Buriganga and Shitalakhya continued to rise.

Flooding around the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka would continue to spread, a water development board official said. Communications with northern districts were also threatened after floodwater inundated stretches of a highway leading to Aricha ferry terminal, 150km from the capital, officials said. Unofficial sources claim nearly 600 people have died in the country's worst flooding since 1988, when more than 5,000 people lost their lives. The government said today it was trying to send relief supplies to the flood victims who are facing food and drinking water shortages. Nearly 100,000 people have contracted diarrhoea, caused by polluted water and rotten food, and thousands more were falling sick every day, volunteers said.

25 August 1998 - Bangladeshi soldiers today threw sandbags and built walls to save a dam protecting Dhaka from the worst floods in ten years. "There has been seepage and erosion in several points of the flood protection dam," said Major Nurun Nabi as he supervised his troops at work in the city's Mirpur district. He said about 4,000 soldiers had been deployed to try to keep the 30km dam intact. The current floods have engulfed two-thirds of the country for more than six weeks and have killed at least 374 people and left millions homeless or marooned. Municipal officials said half of Dhaka was now under water and that more areas could be flooded as the rivers Buriganga, Shitalakhya and Turag were all rising. In Narayanganj river port, 10km from Dhaka, floodwater flooded nearly every house and shut most of the businesses. Sixty-two people have died of diarrhoea. Officials said at least 100,000 people had contracted the disease caused by polluted water and rotten food. Bangladesh on Sunday (23 August) appealed for international aid, but finance ministry officials said today they had yet to receive any response. They said Finance Minister S.A.M.S. Kibria would again call a meeting of donor representatives in Dhaka tomorrow to brief them on economic losses caused by the floods. Weather experts said they feared prolonged flooding this year in Bangladesh.

27 August 1998 - Heavy rain continued for 45th day yesterday, increasing the burden on authorities struggling to cope with devastation caused by flooding that has engulfed two-thirds of Bangladesh and affected more than 40 million people. The Government told overseas donors what aid it needed to try to recover from the worst flooding to hit the country in a decade. The flooding has so far killed about 500 people, destroyed crops worth US$1 billion, devastated roads, culverts, and dykes, and virtually crippled the country's communications network. Severe food shortages coupled with a lack of safe drinking water and medicine in flood areas have been blamed for the large-scale outbreak of diarrhoea, typhoid and other water-borne diseases. The duration of the flooding, the longest in the country's history, appears to have put a severe strain on the Government's resources. With experts predicting it could be weeks before the floodwater recedes, the Government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed has been forced to reverse its earlier decision not to seek international aid. Finance Minister Shah Kibria yesterday formally appealed to foreign donors for US$90 million and 6,000 tonnes of food on an emergency basis. Meanwhile, the Government has also decided to ask for foreign help in the massive post-flood reconstruction work. This could, according to a preliminary estimate, run to more than US$2 billion. An official source said the Finance Minister briefed diplomats and donor representatives yesterday on the flooding crisis and what was needed to help rebuild devastated areas. "Food and cash are essential because of huge crop losses and post-flood rehabilitation," the source said.

29 August 1998 - Authorities in flood-stricken Bangladesh called in police and the army today in a last-ditch attempt to save vital train lines amid a virtual collapse of the country's road system. Railway engineers and workers toiled through yesterday to protect the line between Dhaka and the southern port city of Chittagong, which has been partly inundated by floodwater, officials said. "But the line may have to be closed as the floods show no sign of letting up," one railway official said. The home ministry today requested a wider mobilisation of security forces to save railway lines, almost the only form of land transport still possible in the country. Disaster management officials say the floods have killed more than 400 people, destroyed crops worth $300 million and caused heavy damage to infrastructure. Despite pledges of almost $700 million in emergency foreign aid since the floods began in July, almost none has arrived, disaster management officials said. Over 114,000 people have contracted diarrhoea, caused by polluted water and rotten food, and at least 77 have died from it. Bangladesh was today anxiously waiting for relief goods and other help to arrive from friendly countries and donor agencies. But only 100 plastic rolls to make tents had come from Japan last night, government officials said. They said a consignment of medicine donated by Japan was expected soon. The government, which has appealed for more than $681 million in emergency flood aid, has so far received aid pledges from the USA, Canada, Germany, Australia and Japan. Weather officials today said the floods were unlikely to recede over the next 15 days and could get worse in some districts including Dhaka.

30 August 1998 - Bangladesh will need to double the amount of food grain it normally receives in aid and imports this year due to crop losses caused by devastating floods, Red Cross officials said today. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Friday (28 August) the floods had affected some 760,000 hectares of farmland and destroyed nearly 425,000 hectares of rice and other crops. It said overall damage to farm produce was provisionally estimated at $150 million. Although some one million tonnes of government-held cereal stocks should meet immediate food relief needs, international assistance was needed once those ran out, it said in a report. The USA committed up to 250,000 tonnes of food grains. Denmark will offer $14 million to repair a highway linking the capital Dhaka with the north and north-western districts. Agriculture and Food „Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury said the government would import 300,000 tonnes of wheat and 300,000 tonnes of rice soon.

31 August 1998 - Bangladesh's worst floods in a decade have taken a "critical turn" and victims need immediate help to survive, the head of the country's biggest humanitarian Organisation, retired army general Abdus Salam, said yesterday. "When we made the first appeal for help ten days after the flooding started on 13 July no one imagined it would take on such a huge magnitude," now chairman of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, said.

1 September 1998 - Bangladesh is increasingly desperate for foreign aid to reach its shores as disease, drownings, mudslides, house collapses and snake bite deepen the nation's misery. The flooding has killed at least 513 people and left 25 million homeless or marooned with three-quarters of the country submerged, disaster management and health officials said. Bangladesh has sought $879 million in foreign aid for immediate relief and rehabilitation, Finance Minister S.A.M.S. Kibria said today. Kibria said the foreign aid included 1.377 million tonnes of food grains as immediate aid and $126 million in cash from international donors. The rebuilding of infrastructure will require $460.74 million, he added.

2 September 1998 - Floods, triggered by heavy monsoon rains and fed by water coming from upstream India down the Ganges and other rivers, have killed 534 people so far, relief officials said. Bangladesh was hoping the floods would recede, but forecasts today said the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers were rising again due to an onrush of water from across the borders. "Worsening floods in neighbouring West Bengal state of India have posed a new threat to Bangladesh. Rivers are rising and will cause more floods downstream," a meteorologist said. He said water receded slightly yesterday in Bangladesh's northern and central districts, including Dhaka. "But this may be a temporary phenomenon," he said, adding more rains were expected over the next few days.

4 September 1998 - The situation in Bangladesh, where the death toll from „devastating floods rose by 28 to 580 today, is getting worse every day, health officials said. They said 110 deaths so far had been caused by diarrhoea caused by drinking filthy water or eating rotten food. The country's agriculture minister today reassured Bangladeshis that the government still had enough grain in emergency stocks. "There is no fear of an immediate food crisis and we have taken necessary steps to maintain a stable food supply," Begum Matia Chowdhury said. "Besides, the government has arranged to import more grain while international donors are sending in supplies," she said in a statement published in newspapers on Friday. But many flood victims said they had begun to lose hope of any quick end to their misery as floodwater again rose in most affected areas, including the capital Dhaka, today. Weather officials said the floods would worsen over the next week. "But the water would not recede fully until the end of September," one official said. Bangladesh has sought $879 million in foreign aid for immediate relief and for post-flood rehabilitation.

6 September 1998 - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today urged members of her cabinet to rush to the country's villages to supervise relief and rescue operations as the worst floods in its history intensified. Officials said Bangladesh's longest floods, which started two months ago, had left millions homeless or marooned over three-quarters of the country. More than 150,000 people have contracted diarrhoea from polluted water or rotten food. Diseases such as hepatitis, jaundice, malaria and scabies are also rampant, health officials said. Dhaka city officials said hundreds of people seeking shelter stream into the capital from the flooded suburbs each day, even though it is itself half under water. Weather officials said the floods would worsen with more rain expected over the next few days and more river waters flowing in. Nearly 3,000 trucks have been stranded on the highway between Dhaka and Chittagong port for weeks, transport officials said. Railway tracks have been flooded in more than 20 places, partially disrupting or slowing train movement, they said.

7 September 1998 - Troops and civil engineers were fighting a desperate battle today to rescue trucks stranded on a vital highway linking Dhaka and Chittagong port after devastating floods. "The sudden rise in water level on Saturday night (5 September 5) foiled our attempts <$>\ldots<$> and we are making a fresh attempt now," said Shah Alam, an army Naik or non-commissioned officer. Thousands of trucks carrying various cargoes including food-grains, garments and cattle were stranded on the 250km highway, he said. The highway was officially closed two weeks ago after floodwater cut it off at more than a dozen points. Since then efforts have been made to arrange passage for the stranded vehicles. Despite the floods and the stranded vehicles more trucks are still trying to get onto the road, further hindering efforts. The highway provides a lifeline for the country's export business. If vehicle traffic were suspended on it for much longer there could be dire consequences for the country's economy. Health officials said over 160,000 people had so far contracted diarrhoea, but a worse problem was finding dry places to bury the dead.

9 September 1998 - The Bangladeshi capital was placed on full alert today as massive flood waters threatened to break through a vital embankment protecting over one million of the city's residents. "All relevant agencies including army and civil engineers have been asked to be on top alert as the DND (Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra) embankment is under severe pressure (of water)," one official with the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) said. Weather forecasts said the country was poised to suffer more rains while all major rivers rose again today. Ferries have replaced buses in some places trying to maintain some mode of transportation, but the measures have been limited because the rivers were often too turbulent. Communications with the country's northern half broke down yesterday after floodwater rose up to one metre above the highway, witnesses said. At Halipur, 10km from Dhaka, hundreds of trucks, many carrying cattle, had been stranded. This section of flood water has become a virtual sewer, caused by pollution spluttering forth from scooters, cars, trucks and many people urinating in the already pungent smelling water.

11 September 1998 - A report from Dhaka states: Deliveries of food to flood-stricken Bangladesh are being held up by a backlog at the country's main Chittagong port, port officials said on Thursday (10 September). They said five vessels with some 60,000 tons of food grains were waiting to be unloaded at jetties on Thursday while five more with 97,000 tons were in the outer anchorage. Five more vessels with 125,000 tons of rice and wheat were expected to arrive at the port within a week, the officials said. All the cargo had been ordered in deals finalised before the floods hit, they said. But unloading has been held up by a backlog of freight in the port which importers have been unable to move because major highways to the rest of the country have been cut by floods, Sanwar Hossain, the port's director of traffic said. Mr Hossain said slow delivery had caused storage problems at the port. Port authorities have urged importers to try to take their freight out of the port using smaller vessels. But importers have said there is a shortage of vessels willing to brave fierce river currents and high waves. "Besides, ferrying cargo by motor boats is more expensive," one importer said, without elaborating. Mr Hossain said the average turnaround time for vessels had increased to 18 days from five days under normal circumstances.

13 September 1998 - Floodwater levels in Bangladesh dropped further today, taking more pressure off a key embankment „protecting more than one million people on the eastern fringe of Dhaka, officials said. However, the death toll after more than two months of flooding rose to 950, with 70 people believed drowned in still swollen rivers. The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in Dhaka said water levels of all major rivers dropped by up to eight cm in the 24 hours ending at 07.00 (01.00, UTC) today. Officials and police said at least 30 people were believed to have drowned in the „Buriganga river yesterday after a boat carrying them to Dhaka from the nearby town of Keraniganj capsized in a whirlpool. Another 40 people were thought to have died in a similar boating accident on the flooded Punarbhaba river in north-western Chapainawabganj district.

The first consignment of American relief goods arrived in Dhaka last night, relief ministry officials said. The consignment included plastic sheeting, blankets, water purifying units and medicine, they said.

14 September 1998 - Floods in Bangladesh eased today as the water levels on all rivers dropped, but weather forecasts said it could be another two weeks before the floods receded fully. Dhaka's Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) said today the floodwater could recede earlier than expected, but one FFWC official said that the capital could still suffer from water-logging due to poor drainage. Officials said the full extent of damage and losses would not be known until the floods had fully receded. Health officials and relief workers cautioned that fast-spreading diarrhoea could be the worst threat to the flood victims. Over 200,000 people have already contracted the disease, and 175 of them died. The government was also planning to deploy the army and navy to ensure swift, smooth food-grains delivery from Chittagong officials said today.

15 September 1998 - Disaster management officials said two US Air Force C-130 cargo planes had joined with the Bangladesh air force in transporting relief goods to remote flood areas. They flew first to Chittagong yesterday carrying medicine, dry food and oral rehydration saline that would be distributed by boats among flood victims in the country's eastern districts, one government official said. The US aircraft would help in the relief efforts until Friday (18 September). Responding to Bangladesh's plea for emergency flood aid, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday asked for an additional 355,000 tonnes of wheat. Bangladesh has asked the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to bolster its foreign exchange reserves after the worst floods in the country's history, the commerce and industry minister said today. Tofael Ahmed said the country's foreign exchange reserves would come under increasing pressure as it imported more food grains due to extensive damage from prolonged flooding. Ahmed also said that Bangladesh had been assured of more than one million tonnes of international food aid.

16 September 1998 - Bangladesh stressed today its struggle to stave off disease and rebuild the nation as flood waters recede was far from over. Clean water and dry food are scarce, food and cash crops have been destroyed and roads and railways remain under water, impeding the distribution of relief aid. Doctors working with relief teams said diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases could be the single largest problem facing Bangladesh once the floods had receded fully. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, facing the biggest floods in the South Asian country's history, has already announced a series of emergency measures. She imposed a ban on foreign trips by ministers and officials, ordered strict monitoring of victims' needs and punishment for anyone found stealing relief goods. The government has said it will give seeds and other farming necessities free, or at subsidised rates, to replant their land. It has also said it will provide food to every flood-affected family before the next harvest is in. People are also to receive cash grants to rebuild their homes. The first vessel carrying 15,000 tonnes of grains offered by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is expected to arrive at Chittagong on Friday (18 „September). Distribution of relief goods has been hampered greatly because most roads and train lines have been cut off by floods. Railway authorities said today services „between Dhaka and Chittagong had been restored but trains were moving very slowly as some tracks were still under water. Dhaka's Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said floodwater receded today but many rivers were flowing above their danger levels and might swell again in case of heavy rain. In Dhaka, half of which is still submerged, the number of diarrhoea victims is rising „alarmingly.

17 September 1998 - Floods in Bangladesh receded further today, but officials said the death toll from the deluge had passed 1,000 and could rise further. Diarrhoea, caused by polluted water or rotten food, accounted for 208 of the 1,010 deaths officials said and the toll could "dramatically rise" if the fast-spreading diarrhoea epidemic was not contained, they added. The silting up of the rivers and the blockage of drainage systems had also been partly responsible for the country's most prolonged natural disaster.

17 September 1998 - Bangladesh is deploying its army and navy to clear flood-delayed cargo at the ports of Chittagong and Mongla. The congestion was caused when shippers were unable to move their cargo due to widespread floods that cut off road and rail links. Army and navy personnel will help expedite loading and unloading of export cargo and food grain, said reports from Dhaka. "Clearing the congestion from the two ports is now a major priority for the sake of the country's economy and (getting) food grain to the flood victims," said Deputy Shipping Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury. The daily average for unloading imported feed grain also has plummeted by half to 2,000 tons. Zahiruddin Mahmud, acting chairman of the Port of Chittagong, told reporters that about 12,000 containers were stacked in yards that had capacity for only 8,500 boxes. Another 250,000 tons of „imported goods, including 100,000 tons of feed grain, were awaiting unloading from 40 vessels. Vessels are being forced to stay an average of 10 days, instead of the five days earlier. As part of an effort to get shipments moving, the government has waived airport levies on cargo planes.

18 September 1998 - Municipal officials in Dhaka said they planned to hire 300 trucks to join the capital's garbage cleaning fleet. "The city is still partially under water. But we need to clear the huge piles of rubbish to make the flooded areas liveable again," one official said. Diarrhoea, caused by polluted water or rotten food, had so far killed 227 people, health officials said. Bangladesh and US Air Force planes have carried biscuits, fried rice and molasses to some remote flood areas, relief officials said.

19 September 1998 - Floodwaters ebbed further in Bangladesh today raising hopes for an early return to normal life after more than two months of deluge, but the number of confirmed dead rose to 1,070, officials said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said a famine had been averted thanks to a quick response to her plea for foreign aid. The first ship carrying 15,000 tonnes of wheat offered by the United Nations' World Food Programme was due to unload at Chittagong port today, officials said. A Royal Jordanian Boeing 707 arrived in Dhaka yesterday with dry food, medicine and some rice, airport officials said. They said more relief flights were due in the next few days. Road links between Dhaka and Chittagong were partially restored today while railway officials said train services across the country had almost returned to normal.

21 September 1998 - Families who took refuge in crammed shelters in Bangladesh's capital began returning home today as floodwaters which had inundated large areas of the city for more than two months continued to recede officials said. The floods have killed at least 1,228 people. Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury said yesterday the country's usual two million tonne annual food grain shortfall would more than double to around 4.3 million tonnes because of the floods. The minister said there was no fear of famine because the gap would be made up through imports and foreign food aid. Chowdhury also said the government would start an extensive food-for-work programme immediately after the floods to provide temporary jobs to millions of rural poor. They would work in development projects such as building and repairing roads, embankments and bridges. More than 287,000 people have suffered diarrhoea by drinking polluted water or eating rotten food. At least 367 of them have died.

Dhaka residents had been asked by the authorities to vacate shelters as soon as possible, a disaster management ministry official said. Newspapers today reported that many families had already left shelters yesterday, apparently driven out by poor sanitation and spreading disease.

22 September 1998 - Efforts intensified today to clean up the huge mess left behind as the country slowly emerges above the flood waters. Dhaka bustled with activity as thousand of families who had taken refuge in flood shelters began returning home. "It will take weeks before the city is restored to its pre-flood position," said a municipal employee. In areas which had resurfaced, workers toiled to clean up piles of garbage and debris. But parts of Dhaka were still under knee-high water. Many people returned to find water still swirling on the floors of their homes while others found their homes uninhabitable. The government said today relief and medical operations had been intensified, but officials in the affected districts said the supplies were far less than required.

23 September 1998 - Bangladesh's devastating floods caused at least $161 million worth of damage to the country's transport system, Communications Minister Anwar Hossein said today. "This will be a gigantic task to rebuild and repair roads, bridges, train lines and embankments which have been washed away or damaged by the floods," Hossain said. Preliminary estimates showed the government would need $30.46 million to restore road links, he said. More than $127 million would be needed for a 60km flood protection embankment Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had promised to build in Dhaka, Hossain added. Road repairs had already begun, Hossain said. "Within a couple of weeks all the districts cut off by the floods will be connected with the national road network," he said. More than two months of floods, Bangladesh's worst, killed more than 1,300 people and left some 25 million homeless or marooned. The waters are now receding. Hossain said nearly 10,000km of roads and more than 4,200km of embankment had been flooded. Nearly 7,000 bridges and culverts had been destroyed or damaged. The minister said the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and Britain would help in rebuilding the infrastructure. The government had already committed $2.42 million to emergency repairs, he said.

24 September 1998 - A report from Dhaka states: The volume of cargo, especially food- grain, handled at Chittagong port has nearly doubled since authorities deployed the army to pacify restive dock workers, authorities said yesterday (23 September). Soldiers took up position at the port last Thursday as vessels carrying food grains headed for Bangladesh, where more than two months of devastating floods have killed more than 1,300 people and left millions homeless or marooned. The Bangladesh Navy is also helping to keep the channel from the Bay of Bengal to the port clear, officials said. The floods caused severe damage to agriculture, which officials said would more than double the country's annual grain shortfall to 4.3 million tons. The government has already decided to import commercially one million tons of rice while the private sector is bringing in a similar quantity. International donors have pledged some 1.5 million tons mainly wheat to help Bangladesh's flood victims. Railway services across the country have also resumed as floodwaters recede but trains were running hours behind schedule.

8 October 1998 - More than two months of devastating floods have caused $4.3 billion worth of losses to Bangladesh, the Financial Express today quoted State Minister for Planning Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir as saying. This loss is 10 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), the daily quoted Alamgiir as saying. Bangladesh's GDP is about $43 billion, officials said. Alamgir said the "immediate priority of the government is the agriculture rehabilitation programmes". The government has decided to disburse agricultural loans of $69.14 million, almost twice the amount disbursed in the last fiscal year (July-June). It also has allocated $10.63 million to support marginal farmers. The government has undertaken $900 million worth of short- and long-term rehabilitation programmes for 1998- 99. It will require $600 million raised locally, the minister said. Bangladesh had asked for nearly $900 million in international flood aid, but so far received commitments for only $210 million in cash and goods, officials said. Alamgir, however, said the aid flow would improve in the coming months. "Both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have fielded (flood damage) assessment teams. After completion of their assessments, response from foreign sources would be better," he said.

22 November 1998 - A severe storm crossed Bangladesh's south coast near Mongla port this evening, forcing the evacuation of 100,000 people but causing no loss of life or major damage, according to officials. "it appears that no damage to life or property has been done," said Abul Kahsem, Divisional Commissioner of Khuina, who was also coordinator for relief and rescue efforts. He added however that reports from some remote areas were not yet available. The Storm Warning Centre in its latest bulletin advised Mongla to reduce the alert signal from ten to three, and Chittagong port from six to three. An official at Mongla said the storm had struck the coast with wind speeds of 80kph. Tidal surges of up to six feet were reported from some areas, he added. Officials and Red Crescent volunteers earlier said that around 100,000 people had been evacuated. "Weather officials said heavy rain was battering the coasts and areas further inland. Rain was also falling in the capital Dhaka.

22 August 1998 - Harbin, China

A mass troop mobilisation appeared to have rescued Harbin and several other Chinese cities from churning rivers today, but millions of flood victims faced the threat of epidemics. The immediate danger to China's biggest oil-fields around Daqing, near Harbin in the industrial north-east, receded even though hundreds of wells remained inundated. In central China, thunderstorms were forecast to dump more water into the swollen Yangtze River over the weekend and push river levels above the danger mark again. There was relief in the Yangtze city of Wuhan after a flood crest churned past without punching holes in dikes. Backbreaking work to shore up dikes by 400,000 soldiers and civilians in Harbin was rewarded when walls of sandbags held firm after a similar crest arrived yesterday. "We can definitely protect Harbin," said one flood control official in the city, which has nine million people and some of China's largest industrial enterprises. "The water level has reached its peak," he said. But while urban dwellers survived the floods almost unscathed and food prices remained stable, peasants across vast swathes of rural China faced the threat of disease as they camped out in tent cities and other temporary shelters, state media reported. In the backward eastern province of Anhui, 822,000 people had been evacuated from flooded areas, the Xinhua news agency reported. Some 60 per cent of the victims had sought refuge with relatives and the rest were living in temporary shelters, Xinhua said. In central Hunan province where one million peasants were driven from their homes, half were now living in tents, 200,000 in schools and government buildings, and the rest with relatives, it said. There were 280,000 evacuees in northern Jilin province. In all, 240 million Chinese were officially estimated to have been affected by floods that have killed 2,000 people and caused damage worth $24 billion. Health minister Zhang Wenkang said cases of hepatitis, dysentery and colds were rising in flooded areas. There was the threat of deadly snail fever, a waterborne disease that also poses a danger to flood fighters. About 400 cases of snail fever infection had so far been reported, Xinhua quoted Zhang as saying. But more cases were expected since the disease has an incubation period of 40 days. Zhang said the biggest problem was a shortage of funds and medicine as flooding had destroyed many clinics and much medical equipment. Domestic and international relief donations worth $130 million had been received by the central government, state media said. A benefit performance on Thursday (20 August) by Beijing Television Station raised $20.48 million. Xinhua said oil production in Daqing was steadily rising. In all, 1,443 of Daqing's 25,000 wells had been inundated but only 282 had halted production.

23 August 1998 - In all, 240 million Chinese were officially estimated to have been affected by floods which have killed 2,000 people and caused damage worth $24 billion. China has not updated that estimate since it was announced on 6 August. The immediate danger to China's biggest oilfields around Daqing, near Harbin in the industrial north-east, receded even though hundreds of wells remained inundated. Another 300,000 soldiers and armed police were mustered along the Yangtze River in Jiangxi Province, where a sixth flood crest was expected to reach Jiujiang city this afternoon, Xinhua said. Upriver in Hubei province, where meteorologists forecast weekend (22-23 August) thundershowers, water levels fell by only trace amounts along the Yangtze between Shashi to Hankou and were still rising in the river's upper reaches, Xinhua said. The rising waters posed fresh dangers to the Yangtze city of Wuhan, which has survived repeated flood crests as authorities blasted or abandoned dikes in upstream rural counties to take pressure off the urban centre. In the eastern province of Anhui, 822,000 people had been evacuated from flooded areas. Some 60 per cent of the victims had sought refuge with relatives and the rest were living in temporary shelters, Xinhua said. In central Hunan province where one million peasants were driven from their homes, half were living in tents, 200,000 in schools and government buildings, and the rest with relatives, it said. There were 280,000 evacuees in northern Jilin province and 8.5 million people in Heilongjiang province were affected by floods, Xinhua said. It warned of new health dangers as temperatures plunged in those far northern regions. Domestic and international relief donations worth $130 million had been received by the central government, state media said.

24 August 1998 - Following reports appear in today's South China Morning Post: The most severe flood crest to hit Harbin this season will torment the city for another seven days, according to flood-control officials. The crest has swollen the Songhua River to an unprecedented 120.89m since noon on Saturday (22 August). The only defence for the city is piles of sandbags - the river is already 80cm above the embankments. A serious breach discovered in a dyke in the city centre on Saturday was brought under control by evening, but cracks continued to appear along the 26km embankment. "For the past five to six days, over ten leakages have been found each day," a Harbin flood-control official said, while stressing that 400,000 soldiers and civilians were keeping the situation under control. The effects of water-logging were demonstrated by a riverside pumping station whose foundations gave way on Saturday night. Television showed footage of a crack running down the two-storey building, part of which had sunk 30cm into the ground. Tens of thousands of soldiers in Daqing finished erecting an emergency dyke after the swollen Nen River wiped out the third line of embankments protecting the country's most important oil field. The third line was destroyed by uncontrollable torrents late on Friday, People's Daily said. State television revealed that the oilfield's daily production had fallen by 11,000 tonnes a day, or about 6 per cent.

Torrential rains in Sichuan have killed at least 19 people and left three missing, Xinhua said yesterday. Rainstorms pounded 35 counties between Wednesday (19 August) and Friday. Ziyang prefecture was hardest hit, with 15 residents killed and three missing. The other fatalities occurred near Guangyuan city, where three counties were temporarily cut off. The rains raised the water in five tributaries to the already swollen Yangtze River to well above danger levels and helped form the seventh flood crest this summer, Xinhua reported. The crest was due to pass through Chongqing yesterday before heading on to other flood areas.

26 August 1998 - China's President Jiang Zemin has called on troops to "fight to the death" against floods as a new crest of water on the Yangtze river swept into central Hubei province, the official People's Daily said today. The directive was made in a telephone call to Central Military Commission vice chairman Zhang Wannian and followed a warning that the floods, which have claimed thousands of lives, might only be half over. The flood season might continue into December if typhoons came late this year, and would last until late October under "normal" weather conditions, China's vice minister for water resources, Zhou Wenzhi, said yesterday. Lingering floodwaters have threatened to chill more than 500,000 people left without shelter in north-eastern Heilongjiang province, where temperatures have dropped to 10°C at night, the China Daily said. Provincial officials have stepped up efforts to relocate people sleeping outside, or in cotton tents, to warehouses and homes in villages unaffected by floods, the China Daily said. In Heilongjiang, flooding from the Songhua and tributary rivers had so far destroyed 750,000 houses and wreaked economic damage of up to yuan 20 billion ($2.4 billion), vice-governor Ma Shujie said. In central Hubei province, hit hard by the raging Yangtze, direct economic damage totalled roughly yuan 38.4 billion, said the province's Communist Party vice-secretary, Yang Yongliang. Damage to farmland was extensive in the two provinces, with more than one third of Heilongjiang's crops affected, and 2.54 million hectares of crops submerged in Hubei, the officials said. The government estimated three weeks ago that more than 2,000 people had died in the summer's floods. Beijing is expected to update that figure this week, but has said the new toll would be less than twice the current one. Chinese journalists covering the floods have said privately that the death toll has reached many times the official figure.

26 August 1998 - Floods have killed 3,004 people this year and inundated 21 million hectares of land, Xinhua quoted Vice Premier Wen Jiabao as telling the standing committee of the National People's Congress, or parliament. Floods have cost at least yuan 166.6 billion ($20 billion) in economic losses, Wen said. State media had put the figure at $24 billion. More than 223 million people have been affected by floods in 29 provinces and municipalities under the direct jurisdiction of the cabinet, he said. Nearly five million houses have been destroyed. Along the Yangtze river alone, floods have claimed 1,320 lives, Wen said.

27 August 1998 - Anti-flood workers in China's central Hubei province were today working around the clock to reinforce soggy dikes, while school openings may be postponed in some water-logged areas, state media and officials said. The Yangtze river's worst floods since 1945 saw a seventh flood crest arrive in Hubei province's Honghu city this morning, a city anti- flood official said. "The crest has had an obvious effect on the water levels. It has slowed the drop of water levels from the previous crest," he said. He said rain forecast for later in the day posed a further threat to earthen dikes which have soaked for weeks beyond the period they were designed for. The summer floods, which by government estimates have killed 3,004 people and destroyed five million houses, have also put into doubt a 1 September starting date for many of the nation's schools. In China's Inner Mongolia region 70,000 students have had to suspend schooling as thousands of classrooms were wrecked by floods, the official China Daily said. In total, 8.46 million students, nearly 45,000 schools and countless books and teaching materials have been affected by floods around the country, Xinhua news agency said. Soldiers and civilians in the north patched gaps in dikes punched by the swollen Nen and Songhua rivers. State television reported that train cars loaded with rocks had been purposely toppled into a stream of rushing water in Inner Mongolia. Emergency workers have been struggling to find shelter for people in the cool northern regions, where tents and cotton clothing are in short supply. Initiatives on providing shelter have included placing refugees in the homes of villages untouched by the floods, and clearing out factories and warehouses, state media have said.

29 August 1998 - It will take at least three years for the northeast industrial hub of Qiqihat to recover from the floods, city officials said yesterday. Zhang Guihai, party secretary of Gannan county in Qiqihar, said it was expected to take three years to rebuild the hardest-hit areas. Other areas could recover by the end of the year, he said. The floods in Qiqihar had caused damage estimated at 6.2 billion yuan (HK$5.8 billion), shut more than 1,000 factories, and forced 150,000 residents into refugee status, said the China News Service. This year's harvest has been badly hit, said mayor Liu Haisheng. Almost half of the city's 11.9 million hectares of farmland have stopped production. According to city officials, the Government will cut back on spending to spare resources for reconstruction. Minister of Civil Affairs, Doje Cering, promised flood victims would get adequate food, clothing and shelter. Meanwhile, the second-largest crest on the Songhua River broke 200 metres of dykes near Jiamusi city in Heilongjiang yesterday, the People's Daily reported. The upper reaches of the Yangtze also were swelling again yesterday, with water levels at the municipality of Chongqing climbing up to 178.9m, said Xinhua.

31 August 1998 - Soldiers have blown up dams and lifted floodgates to divert flood waters from the Daqing oil field in Heilongjiang province. Five tonnes of explosives were used to blow up the Laokanzi Dam near Zhaoyuan county, south of Daqing. By blowing up the dam and lifting the flood gates in Zhaoyuan, flood waters were diverted from Zhaoyuan into the Songhua and Nen rivers, reports said. The semi-official China News Service said the diversion was essential to save China's largest oil field because trapped water in Zhaoyuan continued to build up pressure on the Nanyin reservoir. Officials said the reservoir was well over its capacity of 400 million cubic metres and they feared it would burst under the pressure. The agency said water levels had begun to recede since the diversion plan was executed at the weekend. Villagers in Zhaoyuan would have paid a heavy price for the diversion since it would take months before they could return to their inundated villages. Unless floodwaters receded quickly, most victims would not be able to plant their winter crops, the agency said. Thirteen villages in Zhaoyuan have been flooded in the past month. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to abandon their homes, the agency said. A total of 61 counties in the Daqing area were flooded after the latest deluge and more than 60 per cent of the rural population, some 770,000 people, were affected, it said. Total economic losses were estimated at 6.4 billion yuan (HK$5.95 billion). Despite the widespread damage suffered by these villages, the Daqing oilfield had been left relatively unscathed. Wang Yu, director of Daqing Petrochemical Plant, said damage was not severe. Xinhua reported last week that 1,443 oil wells had been affected by floodwaters and 282 had been closed. But production fell only by about 2 per cent.

31 August 1998 - Residents along China's flood-stricken Yangtze River are bracing for yet another flood crest, expected to slam into water-logged dikes early this week. But regional flood control officials say the season's eighth flood peak will not cause the catastrophic damage seen earlier this year. Although the waters are surging toward the city of Yichang at a dike-threatening 60,000 cubic meters per second, a series of man-made diversions is expected to reduce the flow to tolerable levels.

27 September 1998 - President Jiang Zemin is urging the country to get down to the task of rebuilding as floods that have wrecked havoc for weeks start to retreat, state media said today. Two months of flooding along central China's Yangtze River and the Nen and Songhua rivers in the north-east have killed more than 3,000 people, left millions homeless and caused at least 166 billion yuan ($20 billion) in damage, official figures show. Jiang rattled off a list of priorities in helping the country recover from the floods, which have shut down thousands of factories, destroyed crops and threatened the country's 8.0 percent economic growth target for the year. To help the agricultural sector recover, taxes on farmers would be reduced or eliminated and all kinds of fees would be abolished, Jiang was quoted as saying. The People's Daily quoted Minister of Agriculture Chen Yaobang as saying the floods had affected 21.2 million hectares of crops. Of that, 13 million hectares were "seriously affected" and 3.3 million hectares destroyed. While the total impact on grain production is unclear, China has said the flooding slashed summer grain output by 11 per cent from last year's harvest. The China Securities newspaper said a bumper autumn harvest would make up for the summer's losses and put 1998 grain output at 495 million tonnes, 2.5 million tonnes higher than last year. While Jiang hailed the country's "victory" over the floods as the waters began to ease, other authorities warned that nature could still deal damaging blows. "The two-month battle against floods has entered the final stage," the Xinhua news agency quoted an official from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters as saying. But swollen rivers and their soggy banks could still pose a danger late into September, the official said. "The primary task now is to ensure against levee breaches or collapses during the retreat of flood waters," the official said.

10 September 1998 - Fever spread by rats is threatening Chinese flood victims huddled in overcrowded refugee camps where infectious diseases are spreading, relief officials said today. Millions of peasants have been left homeless by the worst floods in China since 1954 and although flood waters are now retreating, disease is advancing. Rodents scurrying to higher ground along with humans were spreading hemorrhagic fever, an untreatable viral disease, Red Cross official Sun Baiqiu said. Sun, Vice President of the Red Cross Society of China, told a news conference that cases of the sometimes fatal disease were rising. She said other diseases were also menacing refugee populations, and warned that "the danger of large scale epidemic outbreaks still exists". "In the north the crucial problem people face is how to pass the winter. Because of the low temperatures, a lot of people are already suffering from flu and pneumonia," Sun said. During bitter winters in China's north and northeast, temperatures often plummet to minus 30°C. Cotton tents that provided adequate shelter for displaced flood victims during summer months "won't be good enough for the winter", Sun said. The Red Cross and other relief organisations have delivered quilts and clothes to victims, while the Chinese government has mainly provided shelter. Along the Yangtze river in central China, Sun said there were small outbreaks of cholera, and leptospirosis - a bacterial disease spread by livestock and dirty water. Cases of snail fever, caused by parasites in sewage-polluted water, have also been reported along the Yangtze.

22 August 1998 - Bareilly, India

Two rescue helicopters weathered torrential rains in India's Himalayas today to reach the site of a devastating landslide. Fresh rock falls and incessant monsoon rains hampered relief work in the remote mountainous area of Uttar Pradesh, where as many as 239 people are feared to have died in landslides this week. The helicopters landed at Malapa, where 202 people are missing and 31 bodies have been recovered so far. "Two helicopters have reached Malapa and dropped food packets, two doctors, medicines and chemicals to preserve bodies," said Sitaram Meena, district magistrate of Pithoragarh district. "Five people who were injured have been moved to Dharchula from Malapa," he said. He said two helicopters had taken 43 relatives of the victims to Pithoragarh from the army garrison town of Bareilly, where they had been waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones for days. Officials said arrangements were being made to bring back other pilgrim groups and their porters who were stranded because of Tuesday's (18 August) calamity, but much depended on the weather. "The tenth batch of 40 pilgrims returning from Mansarovar lake who crossed into the Indian side of the border yesterday will also be airlifted by helicopter some time today and brought to Bareilly and then to Delhi," said Anoop Pandey, state director of information. Relief operations were hampered all week by bad weather and recurring landslides, one of which swept away a temporary landing facility in Malapa. Rain, heavy fog and knee-deep mud had made access to Malapa almost impossible and officials said the delay could mean that bodies would decompose, making identification difficult. There was a let-up in the rain at Bareilly and Pithoragarh today and there were no further landslides reported. The landslides, which blocked roads and rivers, were caused by a combination of cloudbursts and years of deforestation on the fragile rocks of the mountain range, experts said.

24 August 1998 - The Indian army was called in to help relief efforts for up to 200,000 people marooned by floodwaters in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said today. Anurag Goel, principal secretary to the state's chief minister, said 600 villages in the east of the state were totally cut off by flooding from the Rapti and Ghagra rivers, and more than 6,000 other settlements were affected. "The situation has worsened over the last week. We are taking measures on a war footing to save people marooned in these villages," he said. He said that about 300 people had died because of flooding in the state in the last month, during which rivers have been swollen by monsoon rains, and 21 deaths had been reported since Saturday (22 August) alone. Thirty of the state's 85 districts were affected, with the annually flood-prone areas of Gorakhpur, Deoria, Basti, Siddharthnagar, Santkabirnagar and Maharajganj the worst hit. Goel said 600 army personnel had been called in to deal with the situation and aircraft were being used to drop boats and food to communities isolated by the floods. In the Himalayan north of the state, where as many as 239 people were missing and presumed dead after a series of landslides last week, efforts to retrieve bodies from tonnes of fallen debris continued. Senior state official Naresh Uayal said 53 bodies had been recovered from the site of a massive landslip, which engulfed some 200 people. Fears of flooding in the northern region as a result of landslide debris blocking the Mandakini river receded today as water in an artificial lake began to drain.

The water level of the Rathi river which flows from Nepal rose to a new high, its flood waters crippling the electricity and telephone services of cities such as Gorakhpur, the largest town in Uttar Pradesh, officials said. They said the floods had killed about 370 people in the last month, most of them in the last ten days. Devastating floods at Malda in the eastern state of West Bengal have killed eight people and affected 800,000, a district official said. "Floods have affected 1,080 square km in the district. Eight people have died," the official said. He said the water level of three major rivers - the Ganges, Mahananda and Fulahar - was above the danger level, and had affected 7,368 villages in the district. Floods also hit the eastern state of Bihar, killing 184 people, news agencies said.

25 August 1998 - Relief workers stepped up efforts today to help tens of thousands of people marooned by flooding in northern India as waters from monsoon-swollen rivers disrupted vital communication links. Naresh Dayal, a senior official of Uttar Pradesh state, said additional army personnel were being rushed to flooded eastern areas of the state and dozens of boats were being used to evacuate people to makeshift camps. Indian military authorities were airlifting rescue boats from neighbouring states to the flood-stricken province. "The army and the air force is being used in a big way in the rescue operations," the official said. A number of trains and road links, as well as power and telephone services in the eastern part of the state, were disrupted and more than 6,000 settlements affected. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee planned to make an aerial survey tomorrow of the areas hardest hit by the floods. The state government is seeking a grant of ten billion rupees, $235.3 million, to provide relief for the 4.2 million people affected by floods. In the Himalayan north of the state, where 239 people were missing and presumed dead after massive landslides last week, the slow process of searching for survivors and bodies in Malapa was again hampered by rain. By yesterday, 53 bodies had been recovered from the site of a massive landslip that engulfed some 200 people. Government figures released today showed that since 1 June when the monsoon season started, 2,353 people have died in related calamities. Landslides and flooding from heavy rains have killed 688 in Uttar Pradesh alone.

In West Bengal, swollen rivers at Malda in the eastern part of the state have killed eight people and affected 800,000 people, a district official said. Bihar state officials said 155 people were either missing or dead and more than 600 villages had been affected by the floods.

26 August 1998 - India battled against raging floods today to help thousands of people marooned in north and eastern India. Officials said the situation had improved little because even though the water levels of monsoon-swollen rivers were stabilising, communications links with many towns and villages remained severed. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, up to 700,000 people have been completely cut off, officials said. Government figures released yesterday showed that since 1 June when the monsoon season started, 2,353 people have died in related calamities.

27 August 1998 - Relief workers battled furiously today to help the hundreds of thousands of people stranded by floods in northern and eastern Indian states, officials said. They said torrential rain, which had eased in past days and helped stabilise river water levels, had started again and was hampering relief operations. In India's northern, Uttar Pradesh state, more than 550 people have died because of landslides and floods in the last two weeks, officials said. Over 30 million people living in 19,528 villages have been affected and about 900,000 people have been completely cut off in India's most populous province. "Despite the rivers receding, heavy rains have started once again today and the flood situation is grim," said Naresh Dayal, a senior official of Uttar Pradesh state. "We are trying to ensure relief to affected people," he said. A fleet of about 200 army boats brought from different parts of Uttar Pradesh as well as Madhya Pradesh state and 200 civilian boats were shuttling food and other necessities to the marooned population, officials said. Helicopters dropped 5,000 packets of food today. In the last three days, 103,100 people have been evacuated to safety, they added. In neighbouring Bihar state, Press Trust of India said the death toll caused by flooding rose to 202. Eight people have died in West Bengal and 900,000 people have been affected by the monsoon-swollen rivers, with the water level of the river Ganges above extreme danger levels, the private Star Television said. The rain and floods ravaging South Asia have also killed nearly 400 people across the border in Bangladesh, leaving millions homeless and leaving half of capital Dhaka submerged.

5 September 1998 - India's north-eastern state of Assam ordered troops and Air Force aircraft to join rescue work today after millions of people were hit by fresh floods, a senior government official said. "The state government has called for the Air Force to drop food items from today in flood-affected areas," Chandra Kanta Das, revenue and rehabilitation secretary in the state government, said. Soldiers have launched operations to evacuate marooned people, distribute food and medicine and set up medical camps, a spokesman of the regional corps headquarters said. All rivers in the state, including the main Brahmaputra, were flowing above the danger mark. Flooding from the rain-swollen Brahmaputra River in the tea and oil-rich state has killed hundreds of people and caused damage worth millions of dollars, officials said. State police and hospital authorities reported at least 200 people have died from floods and landslides in the last four months. The government has prepared a plan to tackle the situation, officials said. Highways at several areas were washed away by rain-fed waters, disrupting road communication. Police and rescue workers have sent vehicles to evacuate patients from a hospital and prisoners from a district jail to safer places in Dibrugarh town, some 443km east of the state capital Dispur. People in several flooded areas of North Lakimpur and Dhemaji district, some 400km from Dispur, took shelter in tree tops after their houses were washed away. Overflowing waters of the Brahmaputra submerged several areas in Guwahati - the biggest town in India's north-east - and local authorities have sealed underground drainage tunnels connecting the river for safety. Some tea gardens in the state were submerged by fresh floods and workers had to be evacuated, a senior official said. Tea garden authorities have set up temporary camps for workers as flood waters have entered tea-growing regions in Dibrugarh district, B. Saikia, a district civil servant in Dibrugarh, said. A local resident from Dibrugarh, Prafulla Kalita, who was travelling to Guwahati, a distance of 443km, said that at several places the main highway was under waist-deep water, making vehicular movement difficult. In Murshidabad district in West Bengal state, bordering Assam, the army and paramilitary forces were called in to help after 22 villages were flooded, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. PTI quoted West Bengal Minister for Minor Irrigation Ganesh Mondal as saying that 450,000 people had been made homeless. The state's Malda district remained without electricity for the second consecutive day since floodwaters damaged power stations yesterday, said a district official who asked not to be named.

6 September 1998 - Residents in parts of India's north-eastern state of Assam were evacuated to safer places after rains triggered landslides, and fresh deaths due to floods were reported today from the northern Uttar Pradesh state. Police and hospital authorities say at least 200 people have died in Assam due to floods and landslides in the past four months. In Uttar Pradesh, the total death toll due to landslides and floods crossed 1,180 with reports of fresh deaths from some of the affected districts. Incessant rains have caused landslides in the eastern region of Assam and blocked rivers, forcing them to change course, Assam government officials said. "Local government officers, police, military and rescue workers in areas threatened to be washed away are put on maximum alert for any eventualities and in some vulnerable locations, people are being shifted to safer places," Pranab Kumar Bora, a senior civil servant of Assam state, said. Meteorological officials said in Guwahati, Assam's main city, that rain or thundershowers were likely to occur at many places in the next 24 hours. Communication links remained cut off at many places as soldiers helped local authorities to evacuate people, distribute food and medicine and set up medical camps. The Assam government has asked the federal government to help in relief operations. In Uttar Pradesh, a senior state official said: "While most of the major rivers have begun to recede, it was the rise in the level of the Yamuna and Tons Rivers that had inundated a large number of villages in Auraiya and Ghazipur districts." He said 49 of the 83 districts in India's most populous state were in the grip of floods. "Six deaths were reported from Ghazipur, while 51 fresh deaths occurred in other flood-affected parts of Uttar Pradesh (in the past 24 hours) taking the overall toll (due to floods and landslides) to 1,186," Uttar Pradesh's Principal Secretary Naresh Dayal said in the state capital Lucknaw. Official reports said the situation in the worst affected Gorakhpur district continued to be grim with large parts of the city water-logged. Dayal said the state government was taking precautions to prevent any outbreak of waterborne diseases after the flood waters recede.

8 September 1998 - Millions of people in north and eastern India today battled muddy flood waters which have inundated their towns and villages after torrential monsoon rains. The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency quoted Defence Minister George Fernandes as describing the flood situation as "a human tragedy beyond imagination." The floods have so far claimed at least 1,586 lives in the three states of West Bengal, Assam and Uttar Pradesh, officials say. In eastern West Bengal state, the number of dead over the past two weeks rose to 136, and the number of those affected increased to 4.5 million. The state has already spent 400 million rupees ($9.4 million) on relief work. "Relief efforts are being made but there is a major transportation problem, the main bottleneck is railways," said I.S. Ingty, a state relief official. Officials said they were cautiously watching the weather forecast which predicted heavy rains in the next 48 hours. The Brahmaputra river and its tributaries have submerged more than 800,000 hectares of land in the oil-and tea-rich state of Assam, disrupting the telecommunication network and washing away highways. The state government of India's north-eastern Assam deployed hundreds of doctors to prevent outbreaks of contagious disease among the 3.6 million people who have been evacuated from homes, officials said. In northern Uttar Pradesh state, officials said they were waiting for river waters to recede before they could use newly-installed pumps to rid some of its worst-flooded cities of water. Floods and landslides have so far claimed 1,250 lives and water-logged 49 of the state's 83 districts. Senior state official Naresh Dayal said drinking water in tin cans was being distributed along with chlorine tablets in the largest relief operation the state has ever undertaken, to try to prevent epidemics.

19 September 1998 - Rescue workers, fearing the outbreak of epidemics, recovered seven bodies in the flood-hit textile town of Surat in the western Indian state of Gujarat, an official said today. "The death toll may go up as the rescue teams of the army and social organisations are busy cleaning the city," S. Jagdishan Surat's municipal commissioner told Reuters by telephone. Water in the Ukai dam had receded below the danger level and about 10,000 people who had been evacuated had returned to their homes. But many more remained homeless in Surat. An official at state-run gas distributor, Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), said six major fertiliser plants had been shut following stoppage of gas supplies to its Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur pipeline. Power supply to most parts of Surat had been restored. But R.S. Malik, GAIL's general manager, said three National Thermal Power Corp. power plants and two that provide electricity to Delhi were also getting minimum supplies which would only last until this evening or tomorrow morning. An official at ONGC's gas processing complex said emergency teams had arrived from Mumbai to undertake the repair work. Malik said the water level at GAIL's compressor station had subsided and repairs had started. "Our facility will be ready by the evening but we can not help till the supplies begin from ONGC's complex which is still under water," he said.

14 October 1998 - The rice paddy crop in the northern Indian state of Punjab, a major food grains producer, has suffered heavy damage this month due to incessant rains, state officials said today. "According to our estimate, about one million tonnes of the rice crop has been damaged by unseasonal and rather heavy rains in the state early this month," said P. Lal, secretary in the state's department of civil supplies. Punjab is a leading producer of rice and wheat. A senior official of the state agriculture department said unseasonal rains in the first week of October, due to a prolonged monsoon, was likely to hit rice output. "We were hopeful of producing 11.2 million tonnes of rice in Punjab this year, but in view of the unseasonal rains we expect the overall production will be around 9.8 million tonnes," said state Agriculture Director Avtar Singh Randhawa.

16 October 1998 - At least 69 people have died this week in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh due to incessant rains and heavy flooding, state officials said today. Most of the deaths occurred when houses collapsed, but some victims were struck by lightning or electrocuted, officials said. Seven fishermen were also missing. State chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said in a statement that he had asked prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to give financial assistance to the state government. Relief commissioner, B.P. Acharya, said yesterday that massive relief operations had been launched to evacuate people to safer places from "vulnerable" villages. He said relief camps had been set up and medical teams had been deployed to prevent the outbreak of epidemics. He said 4,761 houses and 264,210 hectares of crops had been damaged.

17 October 1998 - The death toll in floods following heavy rains in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh has climbed to 79, state officials said today. Most of the deaths were caused by collapsing houses, but some victims were struck by lightning, they said. Seven fishermen were also missing. Rains which had lashed the state's coastal and interior regions since Monday (12 October) had eased and the water level in the Krishna river, which flows through southern Andhra, had fallen a little by this morning, they added. Late yesterday, state Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that nearly 12,805 houses and 880,890 hectares of crops had been damaged in the rains. "The preliminary report from the district collectors indicates that the crop loss will be as high as five billion Indian rupees ($118.20 million)," Naidu said. The affected crops were paddy, chillies, cotton, sugarcane, groundnut, sunflower and pulses. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will visit the state tomorrow for an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas, Naidu said. He said 52,000 people had been evacuated from 97 vulnerable villages to relief camps. The chief minister said he had asked Vajpayee to grant financial assistance to the state government for relief work and compensation to farmers.

18 October 1998 - At least 250 fishermen are reported missing after their boats capsized off Bombay harbour when a severe cyclone hit India's western coastal areas. Authorities have rescued at least 35 fishermen but officials say high winds are hampering further rescues. Forecasters had warned fishermen not to venture out in the choppy seas and several port cities have been alerted and seaside areas are being evacuated. The coastal areas are also experiencing heavy rains. Weather department officials say cyclone conditions will continue at least two more days.

24 August 1998 - Del Rio, Texas, USA

Heavy rains from the remnants of Tropical Storm "Charley" turned rivers in the US-Mexican border region into raging torrents that killed at least 17 people and forced thousands from their homes, officials said today. The death toll was expected to rise as rescuers sifted through the wreckage of homes and businesses washed away when 18in. of rain dropped on what had been a region hard-baked by months of drought. US Border Patrol spokeswoman Patty Mancha said at least 30 people were missing, but that the number could be much higher. For most of today, all roads and highways into Del Rio were flooded and the airport was closed. Transportation inside the city was hampered by washed-out roads, downed bridges, cars tossed on to their sides and the remains of broken houses washed into the street. Laredo city manager Florencio Pena told reporters that some buildings near the Rio Grande would be damaged, but losses should not be devastating. The floods knocked out water, power and sewage service to much of Del Rio. State officials were trucking in 50,000 gallons of water for use until utilities were restored.

25 August 1998 - Kathmandu, Nepal

Nepal today appealed for disaster relief aid from at home and abroad as the death toll from monsoon floods and landslides since mid-June rose to 168. Officials said foreign and local governments, non-governmental organisations and individuals had been asked to make donations to the prime minister's relief fund. A Home Ministry official said 168 people had been killed and four were listed as missing since the onset of the monsoons, which brought floods or landslides to 61 of the Himalayan kingdom's 75 districts. Ministry official Min Bahadur Poudel said 40,000 hectares of mostly paddy crops were damaged and the loss to the economy was estimated at more than rupees 1.5 billion ($21.8 million).

26 August 1998 - Guatemala City, Guatemala

A mudslide in remote northern Guatemala buried four villages and killed at least 22 people today but dozens more people, mainly women and children, were missing, officials and witnesses said. Heavy rains brought down tonnes of mud on the villages of Chujuyu, Las Graditas, Pachoj and Cruche II, small indigenous communities about 120 miles north of Guatemala's capital, officials said. "The communities of Chujuyu, Las Graditas and Pachoj practically disappeared, as they were located at the foot of the mountain," fireman Aparicio Roman told Reuters by telephone from the rescue site. "We rescued five people and found 17 dead bodies, but we had to call off the search because of the bad weather and because the road was blocked," Roman added. "The survivors think at least another 30 people are buried, most of them women and children," Aponte said. Firefighters had estimated another 12 people could have died.

27 August 1998 - At least 35 people were killed and 16 were missing after a huge mudslide struck four remote villages in northern Guatemala rescue workers said today.

27 August 1998 - Japan

Torrential rain (Typhoon Rex) in parts of Japan sent rivers spilling over their banks and set off landslides which left ten people dead and at least five others missing today, local authorities said. Officials in the village of Nishigo, about 185km north of Tokyo, said five people were killed and one person was injured when a landslide hit a home for the mentally handicapped, burying the first floor under a thick layer of mud. A separate landslide buried a house in another part of the village, killing one man. Two other family members were rescued but another was unaccounted for, the officials said. In the neighbouring village of Taishin, a boy was killed when a landslide destroyed his home. More than 500mm of rainfall in 24 hours was reported in some areas through this morning, set off by warm air flowing north from a typhoon to the south of Japan, the Meteorological Agency said. More than a dozen homes were destroyed and about 1,500 homes were flooded, local authorities said. The rain is expected to continue throughout the day with total rainfall reaching as much as 600mm in some places, the Meteorological Agency said.

28 August 1998 - Japanese local government officials said today the death toll from landslides and flooding triggered by torrential rains lashing Japan had risen to 13 people. Four other people were missing today after flooding triggered by torrential rains preceding typhoon "Rex". Ten people died in landslides and flooding in Fukushima Prefecture east-central Japan, including five who were trapped in a welfare facility yesterday. In Tochigi Prefecture north of Tokyo, two people were found dead today after a river overflowed its banks and washed away ten houses. Police said one person died in Nara Prefecture, in western Japan, in a rain-related accident. Japan's Meteorological Agency said the heavy rains were triggered by typhoon "Rex", now in waters off the Ogasawara Islands in the Pacific, which lie some 600 miles south of Tokyo. In the central part of Japan some train services were disrupted due to the heavy rain, railway officials said. Municipal government officials in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, north-east of Tokyo, told 40,000 residents to leave their homes today to avoid possible dangers from a river flooding. The National Police Agency said 28 people have been injured in rain-related accidents nation-wide and 46 buildings were either destroyed or badly damaged, with 13 others sustaining some damage. Buildings in 13 of Japan's 47 prefectures were flooded.

9 September 1998 - Mexico

At least 25 people have died and as many are feared missing after six days of heavy rains across the southern Mexico state of Chiapas. Some 25,000 people in more than 50 towns and villages were forced from their homes by rampaging rivers which have also swept away houses, bridges and large trees. Another seven people died in flash flooding in other southern Mexico states. Chiapas Governor Roberto Albores Guillen declared a disaster zone along the Pacific coast today. President Ernesto Zedillo ordered 1,100 army troops and two 727 jets loaded with doctors, medical equipment and specialised personnel to Chiapas. However, the bad weather made it impossible to get aid by aircraft to some isolated towns.

An exact death toll was impossible to determine because many remote towns in the impoverished rural state were cut off entirely. Federal civil defence officials said at least 28 people drowned in flood waters or were caught in mudslides in the past two days in the remote town of Pijijiapan, 110 miles from the Guatemalan border. La Jornada newspaper said seven people died close to Tapachula, two miles from the Guatemalan border, when they were swept away by the raging Coatan river. Authorities have declared half of Chiapas' 110 municipalities in a state of emergency. Officials in Mexico City set up help lines and called for aid donations for an estimated 18,000 people, many of them impoverished Indians, who have been affected by the floods unleashed by a pair of storms that began their deadly course up Chiapas Pacific coast last Friday. Tropical Storm Javier, located southwest of Baja California, has also added to the rainfall, forecasters said. Authorities said they feared the flooding had not yet peaked. Federal civil defence officials sent two Boeing 727s full of emergency supplies and 90 rescue workers, doctors and nurses to Chiapas yesterday. But rains pelted the state so hard today that supplies and personnel could not be dispersed to areas of need, civil defence official Miguel Angel Vazquez said. Television images showed a swollen river rushing through the outskirts of Tapachula, sweeping several homes, large trees and a bridge along with it. At least five bridges have been washed away isolating whole swathes of storm-damaged territory.

14 September 1998 - After days without eating, thousands of stranded victims of southern Mexico's deadly floods overwhelmed relief workers and fought with each other for food, witnesses said today. Authorities were still counting the toll from a week of non-stop rain that finally ended at the weekend: at least 100 people dead, hundreds more buried under a sea of mud, an estimated 30,000 homeless, and half a million stranded without electricity, food or medicine. A fleet of 76 helicopters flew relief missions to remote parts of ravaged Chiapas state to bring food and medicine but in some cases were unable to land in flooded fields and towns. Four-wheel-drive vehicles in other cases tried to make their way around mountains of mud. President Ernesto Zedillo toured areas devastated by the flooding for a third time today. He has described the floods as Mexico's worst natural disaster in modern times except for a 1985 earthquake that killed at least 10,000 people.

15 September 1998 - Devastating floods in the southern state of Chiapas could be one of the deadliest natural disasters to hit Mexico this century, according to a government report today. The document, prepared by officials on the ground in Chiapas state, said 407 people had been reported dead and another 849 corpses may be buried under a great sea of mud that has swept away dozens of communities. Although the death toll then was still officially about 100, President Ernesto Zedillo warned the casualties were likely to rise as bodies were pulled from the wreckage and the mud. The government report obtained today, which included reported fatalities as well as confirmed deaths, painted a horrifying picture of destruction and despair since a series of storms swept up the Pacific coast after 4 September. In the town of Pijijiapan, about 110 miles north of Mexico's border with Guatemala, it said 40 people were reported dead and 300 missing. Like many places, the community was inaccessible by land because raging floodwaters had destroyed roads and brought down bridges and people were running out of food and water. "Violent robberies are taking place and due to the impossibility of landing aircraft, the emergency services are dropping supplies from the air," the report said. It said seven primary school children and two adults were swept to their deaths in the community of La Concordia. A reservoir there was on the verge of overflowing. The document said army troops had rescued 30 people from the community of Valdivia. "These people said 151 people had apparently died in Valdivia." In Motozintla, one of the worst hit communities on the 160 miles of coast pounded by up to two feet of rain in a just a few days, the rivers Xelaju, Sabinal, La Tejeria and Minas burst their banks, killing an unconfirmed 218 people. "It is reported that it continues to rain and that in 80 per cent of the municipality, people have been made homeless by the floods. Public services like water, electricity, sewerage and telephones do not work," the report said, adding a local indigenous organisation had reported finding 61 corpses in three outlying neighbourhoods. Elsewhere, the document reported bodies floating, unclaimed, in still swollen rivers. In Tonala, 120 miles north of Guatemala, 300 people were reported missing. The list of neighbourhoods that completely disappeared under the force of uncontrollable flood waters ran on. In Villa Comaltitlan, the report said 50 people were floating around on boats while thieves ran amok on the dry land that remained. The document said officials had to open the ducts of the Manuel Moreno Torres hydroelectric dam to reduce pressure: "The escaping waters will probably cause flooding in the north of the state but it was necessary, according to the official in charge, because otherwise it would have caused flooding in urban areas of Chiapa de Corzo." The report concluded with a terse statement about five other communities. "Unreachable, help will arrive by air."

20 September 1998 - Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo urged the media not to exaggerate the flood toll in Chiapas state, saying the worst of the disaster that left hundreds dead or missing was now over. During his fifth trip to the ravaged southern state, Zedillo said over the weekend that opposition parties had hyped the damage and played down his administration's efforts in the region. Zedillo made the remarks to reporters yesterday in Tapachula, a flood-hit city on the Guatemala border, in reference to media reports citing higher death tolls than those officially released by the government. Army officials over the weekend raised the government's death toll to 180 from 172, according to a count of bodies found carried away by flood waters or buried in mudslides. However, an internal government report obtained by Reuters last week in Tapachula, the largest city flooded, said 407 bodies were found and 849 people were still missing from scattered coastal towns. The Red Cross said at least 400 people died. Yesterday, Zedillo called off the state of emergency he had declared in southern Chiapas.

23 September 1998 - Mexican President Ernesto Ledillo today dismissed reports of a more severe tragedy in flood-ravaged Chiapas state, saying the death toll stood at 185 dead and 89 missing. Zedillo said during his sixth tour of the devastated region that the Mexican government had no intention of playing down the tragedy. "The number of dead until this moment is 185 people. The people reported to have disappeared number 89 now," he said. "I would like to make very clear that the government will carry out the damage assessment with the aim of seeking the truth we all want. We will avoid all attempts at a cover up or manipulation of this tragic statistic," he said in Tapachula, which is near the Guatemalan border on Chiapas' Pacific coast.

24 September 1998 - Rains that caused deadly flooding in Mexico's Chiapas state in the past few weeks have stopped, but the task of adding up the economic cost from the devastation has just begun. At least 185 people died and 89 more are still missing from a week of storms that flooded nearly a third of the southern state, or an area the size of Belgium. Local church and Indian groups, however, have said the real death toll was more than double the official number. It will take at least a year to repair damage to roads and bridges and a few months to dig up some towns that were practically buried by mudslides. All this in Mexico's poorest state already suffering from widespread political violence. The price tag for the clean-up will almost certainly run into billions of pesos, and maybe much more, but officials said it was too early to talk hard numbers. "We are just starting to make preliminary estimates of the damage, and every day we get new information from areas that were hit," Jose Ovilla, spokesman for the state's economic development office said. But the raw numbers alone are alarming: 18,000 homes and 400 schools partly or fully destroyed, 22 bridges downed and another 18 damaged, more than 200,000 acres of farm or grazing land ruined, and 113 towns left without drinking water. Along a 243 mile stretch of federal coastal highway, the rains simply washed away chunks of the road. Some 2,199 miles of rural roads were damaged. Officials will spend at least 500 million pesos ($50 million) to repair the bridges on federal highways and another 70 million pesos to fix a damaged railway line, according to Mexico's Communications and Transport Minister Carlos Ruiz Sacristan. That figure does not include spending to shore up damaged rural roads, spending which the Chiapas state government will have to do, ministry officials said. A silver lining from the storm's clouds could be temporary jobs created by the rebuilding efforts. The government has said it will hire 10,000 workers for at least several months to repair roads, bringing badly needed work to the state. Electricity repairs will take another 70 million pesos, according to the Federal Electricity Commission. Losses in agriculture were not expected to be large, according to the Agriculture Ministry. About 22,000 acres of corn, sorghum, bananas and mango were totally destroyed, according to the ministry, but most of the area can still be replanted ahead of the spring-summer growing season.

28 September 1998 - Five people died and thousands were left homeless today after mudslides unleashed by weeks of heavy rain buried homes in the Mexican capital and left entire suburbs under water. Television news showed people using small boats to row from house to house. Civil protection authorities said five people had died in the mudslides and 220 areas in the sprawling capital, already designated high risk zones, were on red alert. Javier Perez, an engineer with the Mexico City's civil protection force, said 97 millimetres of rain deluged the city during the weekend, setting a 100-year record. Hillsides have been soaked, releasing mudslides that have engulfed illegally built shanty huts, while two large areas in the south of the capital are heavily flooded. The city's dams have reached critical levels. Broadcasters said 15,000 people were declared homeless due to flooding that swamped the municipalities of Coyoacan and Ixtapalapa in the city's south. Mexico City authorities issued an urgent warning to residents in the city's south-western Mixcoac-Periferico area today, urging families to be prepared to evacuate their homes at the sound of police sirens and to move away from river banks and steep slopes. The area is in danger because the Mixcoac river is swollen and the nearby dam close to overflowing. Shelters were being prepared in municipal buildings in nearby neighbourhoods to house the urban refugees. Perez said many illegal shanty-dwellers were reluctant to leave, fearing they would lose their right to squat on the land, complicating evacuation efforts.

29 September 1998 - The heaviest rains in a century continued to drench the Mexican capital today, causing sewage overflows and a rash of intestinal illnesses. At least six people have died in mudslides that engulfed shanty huts on the edges of the sprawling metropolis. Rescue workers said 220 areas in the city were endangered by the flooding and more rain was expected. Parents pushed children in tin bathtubs through stinking, knee-deep water as sewage canals overflowed in the impoverished, poorly drained suburb of Chimalhuacan, in the east of the sprawling metropolis. Doctors said there were an unusual number of intestinal illnesses and advised residents on how to cope with outbreaks of diarrhoea.

2 October 1998 - A press report, dated 1 October, states: Torrential rains dislodged a hillside in central Mexico today, killing 12 people. Another two weather related deaths were reported. The mudslide occurred in Tenextepango, a town in Morelos state about 40 miles south of Mexico City. Rains forced the Ahuelhueyo River to overflow in the area. Several homes were reported damaged, and 120 people were left homeless. Mexico City remained on a state of alert today and officials were urging families to leave their illegally built wood and sheet-metal shacks near rivers and on steep hillsides. Most people, however, have refused to leave for fear that they will not be allowed to return.

4 September 1998 - Nairobi, Sudan

The World Food Programme (WFP) said today it had flown in tonnes of vitally needed food relief to thousands of people displaced by last month's floods in north-eastern Sudan. The WFP said it delivered an emergency one-month food ration today to about 8,000 people left homeless by the floods around the Kassala town area, which has been pounded by heavy rains since the beginning of August. Floods have also disrupted transport networks between Kassala and the war-torn regions along the Sudanese border with Eritrea, where 20,000 people have been displaced, threatening to hamper essential relief operations there, the WFP said. The WFP warned that the situation could deteriorate still further after they received reports that the River Gash, which flows past Kassala, had risen beyond 1988 levels, when Sudan experienced its most disastrous flooding in 50 years.

9 September 1998 - A Sudanese official said floods had displaced 204,000 families, a newspaper reported today. The independent daily al Gomhuria quoted the Commissioner General of Humanitarian Aid, Hussein al-Obeid, as saying floods in Sudan had destroyed 119,000 houses, 95 schools, 80 health institutions and three million feddans (about 1.25 million hectares) of farmland. The newspaper also said Tuti island in Khartoum had been submerged in Blue Nile floods which swept away at least 100 houses and a school and flooded farms. The official Sudan News Agency said yesterday the floods had washed away parts of the railway linking Khartoum to Port Sudan, the country's main sea outlet. A bridge from Gedaref town to the port was also destroyed, the agency reported. Sudan has appealed to the international community for urgently needed aid to offset damages from heavy flooding in the northern and eastern parts of the country. It has said it needs 41 billion pounds ($19.5 million) to provide shelter, food and health services for people affected by the floods.

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