NEW DELHI: Thousands of stranded people were waiting for rescue Saturday and officials pleaded for more help as relentless monsoon floods battered the south Indian state of Kerala, where more than 190 have died in a little over a week and much of the state is partially submerged.
Heavy rains began hitting parts of the state again Saturday morning, slowing attempts to deploy rescuers and get relief supplies to isolated areas, many of which have seen no help for days and can only be reached by boat or helicopter.
More than 300,000 people have taken shelter in over 1,500 state-run relief camps, officials said. But authorities and local media outlets said they were being inundated with calls for assistance.
“We are receiving multiple repetetitive rescue requests,” the office of the state’s top official, Pinarayi Vijayan, said in a Friday tweet, asking those in need to provide their exact location and nearby landmarks so rescuers can find them.
Officials have called it the worst flooding in Kerala in a century, with rainfall in some areas well over double of a typical monsoon season.
Heavy rains since Aug. 8 have triggered floods and landslides and caused homes and bridges to collapse across Kerala, a picturesque state known for its quiet tropical backwaters and beautiful beaches. Officials estimate that more than 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) of roads have been damaged, and one of the state’s major airports, in the city of Kochi, has been closed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Saturday with the state’s top officials, promising more than $70 million in aid. While the central government has dispatched multiple military units to Kerala, state officials are pleading for additional help.
“Please ask Modi to give us helicopters, give us helicopters. … Please, please!” state legislator Saji Cherian said on a Kerala-based TV news channel, the Indian Express newspaper reported.
Modi said that 38 helicopters had been deployed for search and rescue operations in the state, which has a population of more than 33 million. “We all pray for the safety and well-being of the people of Kerala,” he said in a tweet.
Vijayan said initial estimates were that the state had suffered losses of nearly $2.8 billion.
At least 194 people have died in flooding in Kerala since torrential rains began on Aug. 8, and 36 more are missing, according to Kerala’s disaster management office.
More than 1,000 people have died in seven Indian states since the start of the monsoon season, including more than 300 in Kerala.
