CARE staff report

(October 23, 2000) -- Updated estimates indicate 30 million people are affected by catastrophic flooding in Asia, government and relief officials are reporting.

CARE is following its strong initial emergency response by increasing the distribution of food, medicine, water-treatment supplies and building materials critical to the stricken regions.

On the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia, nearly 2,000 people have lost their lives because of extremely severe flooding in eastern India, southwestern Bangladesh, Cambodia, southern Vietnam and parts of Laos and Thailand. Drowning, gastrointestinal diseases and snakebites are among the leading causes of death.

CARE is logistically positioned to provide continuing assistance because of its on-going self-reliance programs in six affected nations. Two of CARE's largest programs are in Bangladesh and India.

An estimated 5 million people no longer have places to live. Homes have been ravaged by raging waters in the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mekong systems. Additionally, millions of people have no livestock or crops to tend. Their means of feeding themselves and earning a living have been destroyed.

Flooding caused $860 million in damage to India's West Bengal state.

"The disaster response from CARE and other organizations in these countries has been tremendous, but it's not nearly enough," said Marge Tsitouris, director of CARE's Emergency Group. "The flooding is so overwhelmingly widespread, that the resources we have are not nearly enough to address today's suffering, not nearly enough to address the rebuilding of people's lives for tomorrow, and no where near enough to get them back on the road to self-reliance."

More than $1 billion in combined losses are being reported by government officials in the six nations. Appeals for hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid have been widespread.

More than 3 million people in Vietnam are homeless.

The magnitude of the crisis has grown in recent weeks as floodwaters continue to fight their way toward the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea.

Strong potential exists for severe disease outbreaks, particularly from contaminated water. CARE is providing large-scale assistance in making water safe to drink and focusing on restoring water systems.

Though providing intensive crisis relief on several fronts, CARE is simultaneously looking ahead, helping people to overcome this far-reaching disaster and recover their ability to provide for themselves. In an effort to help communities move from an emergency relief phase into recovery, CARE is working to quickly initiate projects that range from small loans to shipments of building materials and seeds to assisting communities with boat building and obtaining nets to restore fishing.

CARE is distributing emergency supplies to the most stricken areas of Cambodia.

Far heavier than normal monsoon rains, tropical storms and cyclones have besieged parts of the continent for weeks, causing rivers to overrun their banks, often submerging areas miles from main channels. On the subcontinent, floodwaters surged eastward from India into Bangladesh, causing the worst flooding in some upland areas in more than 100 years. In Southeast Asia, parts of the Mekong River system rose to their highest levels since 1929. The Mekong system is saturating parts of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Floodwaters are subsiding in some areas, revealing corpses and animal carcasses, and increasing the risk of water-borne diseases. Many areas remain isolated.