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India

India: Monsoon Floods 2014, Operation n° MDRIN014, DREF final report

Attachments

A.1 Description of the disaster

The southwest monsoon was vigorous across India in early September 2014, triggering floods and affecting more than three million people across the country, with over 1,000 people dead.

The states of Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and J&K are amongst the worst affected. The response by various governmental agencies at national and state level was swift, with deployment of search and rescue teams, food distributions, temporary shelter, health and cash support.

However, due to the heavy rainfall on 2 and 3 September 2014, unprecedented flooding inundated many low lying areas in 10 districts of J&K and also resulted in landslides. The progress of this floods, population affected and response operation carried out by different government agencies, NGOs and INGOs to assist the affected people was reported in detail in DREF operation update 1 and operation update 2.

Initially, the Army and Air Force extended logistical support to the IRCS, as they were the only one who had the logistical capacity and an overwhelming presence on the ground, and hence could provide immediate access to all affected areas. However, as the situation slowly improved, the IRCS state branch established a temporary office and started organizing support independently and mobilized resources, through its network of district branches and volunteers.

Following the Prime Minister’s declaration of floods as a national calamity, the government committed substantial financial support to the state towards relief and rehabilitation. The government provided financial assistance to the affected families based on the assessment findings of its designated agencies.

Following the completion of all planned activities of the operation, the unspent balance of CHF 65,432 will be returned to the DREF pot.