More Than 1,200 People Have Died in Massive Southeast Asia Flooding

At least 21 people died and dozens more are still trapped after a monsoon storm devastated and collapsed a building in Mumbai.

Thursday, the four-story building fell as the city became deluged with rainfall— the heaviest it’s seen in more than 15 years.

Thirteen people were rescued from the building’s rubble, but workers were still trying to find dozens others who were trapped when the building fell.

In total, because of widespread flooding in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, more than 1,200 are estimated to have died. Some 40 million have been affected in some way by the heavy downpours.

Evacuations are underway in many villages and where streets have turned into rivers.

In Pakistan, meteorological experts say the rains will continue a few more days in the country. Already, 14 people have died in the port city of Karachi, including an 8-year-old boy who was crushed by a building collapse and others who were electrocuted.

In Bangladesh, about one-third of the country is thought to be underwater, while the United Nations has said that Nepal’s situation, where 150 people have died, is the worst flooding in a decade.

According to reports, about 18,000 schools in the south Asia area are destroyed and damaged, leaving nearly 2 million children without school.

“We haven’t seen flooding on this scale in years and it’s putting the long-term education of an enormous number of children at great risk. From our experience, the importance of education is often undervalued in humanitarian crises and we simply cannot let this happen again. We cannot go backwards,” said Rafay Hussain, Save the Children’s general manager in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.

“We know that the longer children are out of school following a disaster like this the less likely it is that they’ll ever return. That’s why it’s so important that education is properly funded in this response, to get children back to the classroom as soon as it’s safe to do so and to safeguard their futures.”

Publication date: August 31, 2017