Unusually heavy monsoon rains over the past 10 days have inundated large areas of the southern Indian state of Kerala. The worst flooding the region has seen in over a century has already killed at least 324 people, and more torrential rain is expected.
The high volume of rain has stressed the area’s many reservoirs beyond capacity, opening flood gates and triggering landslides that have buried an estimated 6,000 miles of roads, severely compromising recovery efforts.
Worst floods in a century kill scores in India’s Kerala https://t.co/HrxbhRbpD4
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 17, 2018
According to Meenakshi Mission Hospital, a local partner of Direct Relief, the National Disaster Response Force has dispatched 12 teams, as well as the Coast Guard and military to Kerala.
Direct Relief has been in touch with, and offered assistance to, multiple partners in the region. The local Emergency Medical Team, Doctors for You, will be traveling to the affected area where they will set up medical relief camps for the next three months. Direct Relief is providing emergency cash funding to Doctors for You to support their relief efforts over the next few months.
Over 223,000 people are being housed in some 1,500 relief camps in India’s southern state of Kerala, according to the office of Kerala’s chief minister. https://t.co/SbJQiIsatP
— NPR (@NPR) August 17, 2018
Direct Relief has made $23 million worth of medicines and medical supplies available to the Kerala-based Amrita Institute of Medical Science , who is currently conducting medical rescue programs using a Direct Relief donated bus.
As part of Direct Relief’s Hurricane Preparedness Program, IV Fluids and supplies have been prepositioned with two Indian healthcare organizations, both of whom will be utilizing these supplies as part of their recovery efforts.
