Inept response to floods outrages India

PURNEA, India-For several days, Urmi Mahato and her family were glued to the radio and TV, eager for information on rising floodwaters and waiting for the government to tell them whether and when to evacuate their home.The warning never came, and officials assured there was no danger. Then one morning a wall of water crumpled the river's mud embankment, swamping the village and sweeping away her family."I do not know where to look for them, there is no one to help me," said the 24-year-old woman, sitting at a government relief camp in Bihar, one of India's poorest states.The floods have forced more than three million people from their homes, destroyed 100,000 ha (250,000 acres) of farmland and killed at least 90 people.Media reports say the toll is at least 10 times higher, after the Kosi river, which originates in Nepal, burst a dam last month and unleashed the worst flooding in Bihar in 50 years.But the tragedy is not entirely nature's doing. Experts and aid agencies blame government ineptness for not only failing to warn people but also for mishandling relief.In the most shocking example, SOS fax messages sent by engineers at the Kosi dam warning of impending disaster were ignored in Bihar's capital Patna, the Mail Today newspaper said.The faxes piled up on the relevant bureaucrat's desk because he was on leave and no deputy had been appointed. No one reacted even when warnings were sent to other officials, the paper said, calling for prosecutions for criminal negligence.
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As in the days of Noah...