1.
GV Floodwater rushing under bridge on the Mahanadi River, India. (2 SHOTS)
0.11

2.
SV Farmers driving cattle through flooded fields.(3 SHOTS)
0.29

3.
SV Evacuees on high land above flooded area. (5 SHOTS)
0.50

4.
SV Mahanadi River in flood.
1.01

5.
SV Homeless people on flooded road, with their belongings. (2 SHOTS)
1.18

6.
SV Doctor checking children on boat (2 SHOTS)
1.28

7.
SV Man spraying DDT in Azamgarh.
1.42

8.
SV Doctor checking patient's chest on hut.
1.49

9.
SV Doctor giving cholera injection. (3 SHOTS)
2.02




Initials JS/





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Monsoon floods have killed more than two hundred people and marooned two hundred thousand in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. Floodwaters have submerged vast areas of the state affecting about two-and-a-half million people.

SYNOPSIS: The Mahanadi River - swollen by days of incessant monsoon rain. Hundreds of villages awash and hundreds of thousands of people cut off. Flood experts admit they are helpless.

The river has bought havoc to huge area. The official death toll stands at more the tow hundred but is expected to be much higher once communications with the worst affected areas are restored.

Some survivors are reported to have had no food for days. As many as 60 percent of the houses in the state are damaged by water. Only those on higher ground have been unaffected. Food and medical supplies have been dropped by air. Local government minister was attacked by starving people when his helicopter landed. Among the victims are thousands of pilgrims who were visiting famous Hindu temples in the Puri area of the state.

Reported from areas first hit by the swelling Mahanadi say that whole village have been virtually demolished. Witnesses say the corpses of drowned victims lay scattered on the roads. Ironically drought and famine conditions have been reported in western India, untouched by the monsoon rains.

In the northern Utter Pardesh state, where monsoon floods have killed more than fourteen hundred people since July, major rivers have again been rising menacingly following three days of heavy rain. At Azamgarh the authorities have been spraying with DDT in the hope of preventing disease.

Doctors area on the alert for the first sings of sickness. Cholera injections are being given to flood affected people and food and medical supplies have been airlifted into mor remote parts. Many areas have not recovered from earlier flooding and communications and roads are cut.