Thousands homeless as Asia weather misery spreads

By Guo Shipeng

BEIJING (Reuters) - Asia's monsoon misery has spread to Nepal, leaving thousands of people homeless, while more rain is expected to bring further chaos to China's drowned southwest, where many have already lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones.

Rescuers dropped relief supplies to hundreds of people in Indonesia's Sulawesi island on Friday after days of torrential rain triggered landslides and floods.

About 85 people have died and nearly 8,000 people displaced from their homes in central Sulawesi. A relief official said authorities had not been able to pull out many bodies because of a lack of heavy machinery and equipment.

In China, the toll is far higher, with more than 500 people killed across this country in floods this summer.

Meteorologists forecast more downpours for the Guangxi region and the provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan where floods and related disasters have already taken a heavy toll.

"The possibility of landslides and mud and rock flows is high and preventive measures should be taken," the centre said on its Web site (www.nmc.gov.cn).

This year's monsoon has also caused widespread flooding in South Asia and Indochina, straining disaster relief agencies.

In mountainous Nepal, floods have destroyed crops and disrupted transport and electricity supplies across the country, officials and media reports said on Friday.

Around 2,500 houses have been washed away in the Himalayan nation's southern plains, forcing residents to flee to higher grounds after week-long heavy rains, local media said.

Officials said floods and landslides have killed about 40 people in Nepal since June when the annual monsoon rains began.

FLOODWATERS SPREAD

In Bangladesh, monsoon floods continued to spread, inundating vast areas in 30 of the country's 64 administrative districts, officials said on Friday.

"Thousands of people have been marooned or displaced. We have opened flood shelters at several places and are bracing for the worst," said Ibrahim Khalil, an official in Sirajgan district, one of the worst-hit areas north of the capital Dhaka.

Across the border in India, incessant rains over the past week have displaced hundreds of thousands of people in the east and northeast, destroyed crops and damaged bridges, officials said on Friday.

In the eastern state of Bihar, 21 people have died and hundreds of thousands of villagers have seen their houses washed away. Road and rail networks have been disrupted by heavy monsoon rains over the past three days.