workers lost all their possessions in record floods caused by the country’s heaviest rainfall in living memory, aid officials said. Christian Aid Mission (CAM), which supports hundreds of Indian missionaries living in poverty, told BosNewsLife that slums in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra state, were among the worst effected areas with the confirmed death toll reaching almost 750.
The organization said that although most of its "Gospel workers" had been safe, "some however, have not yet been contacted."
As night fell over this city of over 15-million, native missionaries and other rescuers had been scouring flood-ravaged neighborhoods and outlying villages where dozens more bodies were apparently discovered.
DROWNING AND ELECTROCUTION
"Over 700 people have been killed, [at least] 376 in Mumbai alone, from drowning, electrocution or being crushed in landslides," said CAM. Among the dead were at least 15 people, including seven children, who were killed late Thursday, July 28, in a Mumbai shanty stampede set off by false rumors of a dam bursting. More than 25 others were injured, authorities said.
"Missionaries are turning their attention now to helping those worst affected [such as] residents of Mumbai’s slums and Maharashtra’s poorest villages," CAM added. Their faces covered with green masks, relief workers used spades to search for survivors as cranes lifted twisted wooden and tin debris, media reports said.
Navy divers were seen using inflatable rafts to reach areas cut off by water while soldiers and civil defense workers trudged to outlying villages, digging in search of the living and the dead. "It was terrible to pull out little babies from under boulders and mud," firefighter S. Shinde, told the Associated Press (AP) news agency, wiping his brow with mud-caked hands.
SEARCHING RUINES
In the northern Mumbai suburb of Saki Naka, relief workers and survivors searched the ruins of a shanty crushed when a water-soaked hill collapsed on top of it, AP reported. At least 110 people were killed and more than 45 others were reportedly missing and presumed dead.
In a message released by CAM, native missionaries confirmed that especially "the poor people will face the hardest times since it is not going to be easy for them to rebuild shelters and to provide care for their little ones."
A native missionary in the region, who the organization identified only as Brother Anil, was among Christian workers who allegedly lost most of their possessions in the floods. "His family’s house was underwater for an entire day [and] most of their possessions are destroyed," CAM claimed. "They have had to take shelter in a government building. Mission leaders report that many gospel workers were stranded away from their homes because roads had turned to rivers. Most have since been able to return," the organization added.
MISSION GROUP
Earlier the mission group Gospel For Asia said a dozen churches were destroyed in Mumbai and
that its Bible college in the area had been damaged. CAM said all it could do was to "pray
that those missionaries yet unaccounted for will be safe" and "for the hundreds who lost family
members and the thousands who lost all they owned in the floods."
The troubles began Tuesday, July 26, when Mumbai was reportedly hit by an unprecedented deluge of up to 94 centimeters of rain, the heaviest rainfall since India began keeping weather records in 1846. Much of it came over a few hours, transforming roads into fierce rivers and causing landslides that buried dozens of people and cut off villages.
After heavy rains ended Thursday, July 28, rebuilding began Friday, 29 under a reported overcast sky. Christian Aid Mission can be reached via website: www.christianaid.org and Gospel For Asia via website: www.gfa.org. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from India).
