PATNA: The Kosi swallowed fresh areas
in Supaul, Saharsa, Araria and Madhepura districts of Bihar on Wednesday even as
bad weather stopped three IAF choppers from conducting relief sorties. The death
toll in the floods has mounted to 55 with nine more deaths reported from the
region. (
Watch
)
"Nevertheless, personnel of
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Special Auxiliary Police (SAP),
Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), state police and one column of the Army battled the
elements to reach succour to victims," Additional Commissioner of Disaster
Management Pratyay Amrit said.
Over 25 lakh people have been hit by
the impact of one of the worst floods in recent public memory with victims from
the four districts making up 19.78 lakh.
A total of 396 boats
engaged in relief and rescue work in the four worst-hit districts have so far
evacuated 65,539 marooned people to safer places, Amrit said. The number of
people evacuated in the 15 flood-affected districts is more than 1.2 lakh.
With five more deaths reported from Madhepura and four from Saharsa
during the last 24 hours, the death toll due to the floods has shot up to 55.
While Madhepura at 14 accounted for the largest number of deaths,
Muzaffarpur reported 11, Saharsa 8, Supaul 7, Katihar, Sitamarhi, Bhagalpur 4
each, Khagaria 2 and Nalanda 1.
With the Kosi, which has changed its
course and picked up a channel it had abandoned over two centuries ago following
a breach in its eastern afflux embankment at Kusaha in Nepal on August 18,
sweeping vast areas outside its embankments, village after village has been
flooded in north Bihar.
A seemingly endless expanse of water extends
up to the horizon in the vast countryside where only a few trees, electricity
and telephone towers break the view.
Lakhs of people have taken
shelter on embankments, public and private buildings and many more are seen
heading on tractor-trailers for dry and safe land taking roads that are
invisible under water relying solely on the instincts of the driver.
At Daharia in Supaul district, the handful of pucca houses that
still stand in the midst of a sea of water and debris of collapsed mud and
thatch houses are choc-a-bloc with people, fast running out of supplies and
waiting anxiously for rescue and rations.
Sometimes, the packets of
food dropped by IAF choppers on highways and embankments fail to reach the
target and end up getting swept away by the strong currents of the Kosi, that
has lived up to its epithet, 'the sorrow of Bihar.'