Floods in India cause long-term devastation

Salvation Army officers brave flood-waters to distribute food

Only months after the east coast of India was devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami, the west of the country has suffered its own disaster, with heavy rains causing terrible flooding. The worst of the flooding – caused by torrential rain described in local newspapers as a 'tsunami from the sky' – has now subsided but local Salvation Army personnel are left to cope with the needs of families who have been left with destroyed homes, no furnishings and devastated crops. Many have lost any means to earn a living.

The Salvation Army's India Western and India South Western Territories are facing a growing task. Relief teams are now able to venture into villages that have been cut off from the rest of the country, and more and more affected families are being discovered. The Salvation Army in Western India is putting into place plans to feed up to 5,000 families from nearly 200 affected villages. The spread of disease in the wet conditions makes any response extremely urgent.

A member of a team that handed out rice reports meeting many people who had lost all hope. 'We met a lady who had lost everything,' he says. 'Her house is covered with water.There was no food and not even drinking water for her and her children. Her children were crying with hunger. She had been trying to catch fish from the flood waters. She had lost all her clothing and household things.'

Houses need to be rebuilt and at least 26 emergency shelters will need to be either repaired or rebuilt. The situation is made worse as most resources in India have been all but exhausted in recent months due to the response to last December’s tsunami.

While thousands of families are now looking to The Salvation Army in western India, The Salvation Army in India is looking to the world community to help meet the needs of the most vulnerable families and individuals affected by the floods. Donations should be directed to The Salvation Army’s South Asia Disaster Fund.