Floods In South Asia Have Killed More Than 1000 People This Summer

Residents walk through floodwaters in Malda, West Bengal, India, on Thursday. The death toll from floods sweeping South Asia has climbed above 1,000, according to news services tracking official tallies.

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Residents walk through floodwaters in Malda, West Bengal, India, on Thursday. The death toll from floods sweeping South Asia has climbed above 1,000, according to news services tracking official tallies.

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Weeks of flooding across Nepal, Bangladesh and India have killed more than 1,000 people, according to news agencies keeping track of official death tolls.

And while waters are receding in some areas, the monsoon season isn’t over. A new round of flooding has brought life to a near standstill in Mumbai, India’s financial center and one of the world’s most populous cities.

Late summer often brings heavy rain, floods and landslides to the region, with deadly consequences.

“Seasonal monsoon rains, a lifeline for farmers across South Asia, typically cause loss of life and property every year between July and September, but officials say this year’s flooding is the worst in several years,” Reuters reports.

Millions of people have been displaced or stranded by the storms, which have stretched on for weeks.

Bystanders look on as floodwaters rage near a house in Kurigram, northern Bangladesh, in mid-August. Tens of millions of people are affected by what aid agencies are calling the region’s worst monsoon disaster in recent years.

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Bystanders look on as floodwaters rage near a house in Kurigram, northern Bangladesh, in mid-August. Tens of millions of people are affected by what aid agencies are calling the region’s worst monsoon disaster in recent years.

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In Bangladesh, the death toll is at least 140, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. More than 700,000 homes have been destroyed, the office says.

So much farmland has been ruined by the monsoon rains that the country faces long-term food insecurity, the U.N.’s World Food Program said last week. The WFP has been feeding more than 200,000 people, according to its statement. “Many flood survivors have lost everything: their homes, their possessions, their crops,” representative Christa Räder said.

Flood victims walk past damaged houses in Itahari, Sunsari district, Nepal, earlier this month. Severe flooding has left tens of thousands of homes totally underwater in the populous southern lowlands of Nepal.

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Flood victims walk past damaged houses in Itahari, Sunsari district, Nepal, earlier this month. Severe flooding has left tens of thousands of homes totally underwater in the populous southern lowlands of Nepal.

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In Nepal, at least 143 people have died, the U.N. resident coordinator says, and more than 460,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. Dozens of people are still reported missing, The Himalayan Times reports. The floodwaters have been receding, the Times reports, but relief efforts are only beginning.

And in India, the U.N. says more than 32 million people are affected by the monsoon floods. Last week, the news service Agence France-Presse, tallying official death tolls across five regions, found 726 victims of flooding and landslides, while Reuters looked at six states and found at least 850 people have died.

Almost 2,000 relief camps have been established, the U.N. says.

Some aid groups active in the region are also responding to the devastating floods in Houston. The challenges are different, Jono Anzalone, the vice president of international services at the American Red Cross, told NPR.

“If you compare the shelter conditions in Bangladesh to Texas, as dire as the condition may seem in Texas, typically, we would at least have safe structures on safe ground — not in flood plains,” he said. “For better or for worse, when people look at the U.S. response system, we have a very mature federal disaster response system … You don’t see that in Nepal, Bangladesh or India. In Nepal and Bangladesh, the government simply doesn’t have the resources.”

Residents affected by flooding navigate high water to collect relief materials in Udaynarayanpur, West Bengal, in eastern India, on Aug. 1. The past few weeks of monsoon flooding have had their most devastating effect on India’s east and north.

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Residents affected by flooding navigate high water to collect relief materials in Udaynarayanpur, West Bengal, in eastern India, on Aug. 1. The past few weeks of monsoon flooding have had their most devastating effect on India’s east and north.

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The past few weeks of monsoon flooding have had their most devastating effect on India’s east and north, as well as neighboring Bangladesh and Nepal.

But over the weekend, relentless rain began falling on Mumbai, on India’s western coast. The resulting floods brought the city’s transportation systems to a standstill.

Several trains have derailed after tracks were washed away, the Hindustan Times reports. The Times of India describes roads “under knee- to waist-deep water for several hours,” filled with abandoned vehicles.

After four days of continuous heavy rain, the city struggled further during high tide on Tuesday, when water couldn’t drain into the sea as usual, the Times of India reports.

Days of heavy rain have left some streets in Mumbai flooded waist-high on Tuesday. India’s financial capital has been brought to a virtual standstill by the widespread floods, and more rain is in the forecast.

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Days of heavy rain have left some streets in Mumbai flooded waist-high on Tuesday. India’s financial capital has been brought to a virtual standstill by the widespread floods, and more rain is in the forecast.

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“Thousands waded through waist-deep water to reach home,” Reuters reported on Tuesday. The wire service continued:

“Floods in 2005 killed more than 500 people in the city. The majority of deaths occurred in shanty town slums, which are home to more than half of Mumbai’s population.

“Unabated construction on flood plains and coastal areas, as well as storm-water drains and waterways clogged by plastic garbage, has made the city increasingly vulnerable to storms.”

There is flooding in a major public hospital, the Times of India reports. Officials have asked that cars outside the city to turn back instead of driving toward the center because waterlogged roads back up traffic and create perilous conditions.

At least five people have died in Mumbai’s floods, according to NDTV.

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Miami leaders line up to support ‘Dreamers’ and ask Trump to do the same

With the future of a program that protects undocumented young people from deportation in question, leaders of Miami-Dade lined up Wednesday to voice their support for “Dreamers” and reassure scared kids that the community has their back.

For the last five years, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents when they were children could access the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and get a work permit and driver’s license. President Donald Trump has signaled he wants to end the program put into place by President Barack Obama via executive order, possibly as soon as this week.

They gathered at Miami Dade College, which became “the epicenter of the ‘Dreamer’ movement” in 2010 when four undocumented students walked the 1,500 miles from the Freedom Tower to the U.S. capital to call attention to their plight.

“Today,” MDC President Eduardo Padron told the crowd. “We’re telling them ‘we’re with you.’”

For many leaders, their connection to the issue was personal.

Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho pointed to himself, an unaccompanied minor that overstayed his visa, as an example of an immigrant who would have been a “Dreamer” if the program had been around when he was young.

“There is nothing more right than for our community here and beyond to stand up, to show up, to speak up, to close arms around our children, who are American in every single way but one. They were not born here,” he said.

If the wet-foot-dry-foot policy had not been around when he arrived from Cuba, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado said, he wouldn’t be where he was today.

“It’s important that we send a message to the White House,” he said. “The message is clear. These men and women are the future. Please protect them.”

Another immigrant, Mike Fernandez, head of the Immigration Partnership and Coalition (IMPAC) Fund, put it even more directly. He turned to the dozen “Dreamer” students in the room and told them, “It’s all about you, because you are what we used to be.”

One of those “Dreamers”, 20-year-old Javiera Garate, said she has big plans, but she can’t reach them without DACA. She’s at MDC studying to become a nurse anesthetist and eventually hopes to go to medical school to become an anesthesiologist.

She pointed to the DACA card she keeps in her wallet and said without it she couldn’t study. If the program is gone when her protection expires next year, she might have to go back to her native Chile, a country she hasn’t seen since she was 4.

“I just hope they do something for us,” she said. “Something permanent.”

Cheryl Little, executive director of Americans for Immigrant Justice, asked everyone in the room to support the “Recognizing America’s Children Act,” a bill submitted by Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo that would offer a path to citizenship for law-abiding undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children.

“It is time to unleash the dream,” she said.

Although Trump could end DACA any day, immigration experts agree that the end would likely come slowly over time. No one would be deported immediately, they said. That reassurance does little to calm immigrants (under DACA protection or not) anxious about their future.

The Miami-Dade and Broward schools superintendents stressed that no matter what happens with DACA, undocumented immigrants should feel safe sending their children to school. “We have never, nor will we ever — and this is in accordance with federal law — ask about the immigration status of children or their parents,” Carvalho said. “That to us is sacrosanct.”

Families concerned about their immigration status should feel comfortable approaching school officials, who are referring students and their families to counseling services and to outside organizations that provide assistance to undocumented immigrants, the district leaders said.

“We believe they’ve done nothing wrong, that they should have an opportunity to get a high-quality education,” said Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie, speaking on a conference call Wednesday morning organized by Chiefs for Change, a bipartisan coalition of state and district education leaders. “We’re in the education business, not deportation,” he added. “We have to educate kids no matter where they come from.”

Neither Miami-Dade nor Broward know how many of their students have DACA, which students can apply for in most cases starting at age 15. Carvalho said that since school started last week, he’s visited more than 30 schools and met numerous students who expressed fear about their immigration status.

“A couple of them at the high school level approached me seeking help,” Carvalho said. “That really broke my heart, the uncertainty that they feel.”

Both the Miami-Dade and Broward school boards have also been vocal in their support for undocumented immigrant students, passing school board items in March that publicly declared schools a safe place for immigrants.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s current policy states that immigration enforcement at sensitive locations like schools and churches should be avoided except in extreme circumstances or with the approval of a high-level official, but activists say symbolic gestures like the school board proclamations help communicate to immigrant families that their children are safe at school.

Despite the divided political climate nationally, Runcie said his district has not received any public criticism for their stance. “Given the demographics of where we are it’s been very strongly supported,” he said. Runcie cited a Morning Consult and Politico poll from April that showed 78 percent of registered voters nationwide said “Dreamers” should be allowed to stay in the U.S. and more than half expressed support for a path to citizenship for these young people.

At Wednesday’s news conference, Honduran “Dreamer” Monica Lazaro begged everyone in the room to call their elected representative and ask them to support a path to citizenship, or a permanent solution to the crisis dreamers face.

“And to all the dreamers, I ask you to keep your hopes up,” she said. “Keep fighting. Let’s be strong.”

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