Floods kill 18, displace 100,000 in eastern India

Heavy flooding in eastern India has killed 18 people and displaced almost 100,000 over the past week, government and aid officials said Monday, warning of more wet weather to come. The floods were triggered by torrential monsoon rains across Orissa state, causing water levels to rise and overflow river banks, sparking an operation. that saw helicopters drop off emergency food packets to help the stranded.
"We are face-to-face with yet another bitter flood that has claimed 18 lives with another six people reported missing," Orissa's disaster management minister Surya Narayan Patra told AFP. He said the state government had evacuated tens of thousands of people from their waterlogged homes and was enacting relief measures to help a total of 1.7 million people affected by the floods.