Rescue workers have used helicopters and boats to evacuate hundreds of people stranded on their roofs following unprecedented flooding in India’s Kerala state where more than 173 people have died, officials said.
Heavy rains over the past eight days triggered flooding and landslides while also leading to collapse of homes and bridges and severely disrupted air and train services in the southern state.
With torrential rains coming to a halt on Friday, thousands of rescuers worked to shift the marooned people to 1,200 state-run camps already sheltering more than 150,000 people.
On Friday, a pregnant woman with her water bag leaking was airlifted and evacuated from a rooftop by the Indian navy in Aluva district.
Soon after the dramatic rescue, Sajita Jabeel, 25, gave birth to a baby boy.
The young lady and her new born son both are doing fine,” a navy spokesperson said on Twitter.
A defence ministry representative said in a statement on Thursday afternoon that more than 3,000 people had been rescued by the armed forces in 12 districts of Kerala.
State officials have put the death toll at 164 since August 8.
More than 300 have been reported killed since the monsoon season began on May 25, according to Kerala disaster management officials.
“Kerala is facing its worst flood in 100 years. Eighty dams opened, 324 lives lost and 223,139 people are in 1500-plus relief camps,” Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala chief minister, said on Twitter on Friday.
On Thursday morning, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he had asked the country’s defence ministry to further step up rescue and relief operations across the state. Modi was expected to visit Kerala on Friday.
Authorities have opened the gates of 34 reservoirs as water reached dangerous levels.
Hundreds of villages have been flooded, more than 10,000km of roads and thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged across the state, officials said.