India struggles to cope with massive flood catastrophe

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

MADHEPURA, India, Sept 1, 2008 (AFP) — At least half a million people have been left stranded in northern India without food or water, two weeks after a river changed course swamping hundreds of villages, officials said Monday.

Tens of thousands of survivors packed overcrowded relief camps as tensions grew over inadequate emergency supplies in the camps, as well as the challenge of reaching those still marooned in the already impoverished state of Bihar.

More than half a million people have been evacuated from the disaster zone, with at least another 500,000 still without food or water, disaster management official Prataya Amrit told AFP on Monday.

The catastrophe occurred as the monsoon-swollen Kosi river breached its banks on India's border with Nepal on...