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| Flooding Kills Hundreds in Northern India | Flooding Kills Hundreds in Northern India |
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| RUDRAPRAYAG, India — Flash floods and landslides unleashed by early monsoon rains have killed at least 560 people in northern India and left tens of thousands missing, officials said on Saturday, with the death toll expected to rise significantly. | RUDRAPRAYAG, India — Flash floods and landslides unleashed by early monsoon rains have killed at least 560 people in northern India and left tens of thousands missing, officials said on Saturday, with the death toll expected to rise significantly. |
| Houses and small apartment blocks on the banks of the Ganges, India’s longest river, have toppled into the rushing, swollen waters and been swept away with cars and trucks. | Houses and small apartment blocks on the banks of the Ganges, India’s longest river, have toppled into the rushing, swollen waters and been swept away with cars and trucks. |
| “It has been a horrifying experience,” said Tulika Srivastava, from the northern Indian city of Lucknow, who has been stranded since last week with her 80-year-old mother in the pilgrimage town of Rudraprayag in Uttarakhand State. | |
| Thousands of military troops were involved in rescue operations, with air force helicopters rescuing survivors, many of them Hindu pilgrims and tourists, from the foothills of the Himalayas. | |
| About 33,000 people had been rescued so far this week, the Home Ministry said. Railways were running special trains from the devastated areas to take people home. | |
| “Whatever is humanly possible is being done,” the minister of information and broadcasting, Manish Tewari, said. | |
| The rains had eased on Saturday, but more rain was expected early next week, complicating the task of rescuers. | |
| As many as 150,000 people were flown from the reach of the floods, said Dinesh Malasi, a rescue official at Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand, with 60 helicopters pressed into the task. | |
| Aid workers were struggling to negotiate roads blocked by landslides to reach the Kedarnath Valley, one of the worst-affected areas, where thousands of pilgrims had been stranded. Some of those rescued by helicopter told charity officials in Dehradun that they had seen bodies scattered everywhere. | |
| “The deaths will certainly rise,” said Madan Mohan Doval, an official of Sphere India, a group of nongovernment agencies working in the area that includes the international charity Plan and the Indian Red Cross Society. | |
| “People are in immediate need of basic aid such as dry food, clean drinking water, clothes, medicines, tarpaulin sheets for shelter and blankets,” Mr. Doval added. | “People are in immediate need of basic aid such as dry food, clean drinking water, clothes, medicines, tarpaulin sheets for shelter and blankets,” Mr. Doval added. |
| Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered 200,000 rupees, or $3,400, to the family of each of those who lost their lives and 50,000 rupees to the injured from a national relief fund. He also pledged money to people who have lost their homes. | |
| Mr. Singh promised $167 million in disaster relief to Uttarakhand, home of the gods in Hindu mythology and the hardest-hit state. | Mr. Singh promised $167 million in disaster relief to Uttarakhand, home of the gods in Hindu mythology and the hardest-hit state. |