More than one million people have swarmed relief camps in India's Kerala state to escape devastating monsoon floods that have killed more than 410 people, officials said Tuesday as a huge international aid operation gathered pace. People are flocking to camps as the scale of the desolation is revealed by receding waters and the military rescues more people each day.
The Kerala government said 1,028,000 people are now in about 3,200 relief camps across the southern state. Officials said six more bodies were found Monday, taking the death toll to more than 410 since the monsoon started in June. Kerala authorities say they are desperate for funds and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday promised $100 million in aid, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced after telephone talks with UAE leaders.
The amount is more than the $97 million so far promised by India's central government. Vijayan demanded a $375 million package from the government, saying the state must confront more than $3 billion in devastation. Millions of dollars in donations have poured into Kerala from the rest of India and abroad in recent days. Other state governments have promised more than $50 million while ministers and company chiefs have publicly vowed to give a month's salary.
Even Supreme Court judges have donated $360 each while the British-based Sikh group Khalsa Aid International has set up its own relief camp in Kochi, Kerala's main city, to provide meals for 3,000 people a day. The rescue operation is now focused on the worst-hit areas such as Chengannur, where more than 60 centimetres (two feet) of water blocked many roads as more rain fell Tuesday.
Army teams said several thousand people in the town remained in homes inundated by 10 days of torrential downpours.
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