Disease prevention and sanitation now top priority as bodies continue to be found

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Flood waters have receded in the southern Indian state of Kerala, allowing authorities to retrieve the bodies of victims and enabling residents to start assessing the damage to their homes after the worst monsoon rains in a century.

Rains that have battered theregion for the past 12 days were relenting and authorities said 90% of rescue operations were now complete, though thousands of people were still feared to be trapped in the worst-hit areas.

Play Video 0:57 Kerala floods: Tales of humanity and hope from deadly monsoon in southern India – video

Maintaining sanitation and preventing disease in relief camps housing more than 800,000 people was now the priority, the Kerala health minister, KK Shailaja, said. Authorities were also seeking to restore regular supplies of clean drinking water and electricity to the state’s 33 million residents.

Officials said 22,000 people were rescued on Sunday and at least 30 bodies were found, taking the death toll above 200 in the past fortnight, when rainfall was up to two and a half times heavier than usual. More than 400 people have died since the monsoon started in May.

Thousands of army, navy and air force personnel have been deployed to help those stranded in remote and hilly areas. Dozens of helicopters have been dropping tonnes of food, medicine and water over areas cut off by damaged roads and bridges.

At least 1,000 were feared stranded in five villages around Chengannur, one of the districts worst hit by the deluge.

In another badly hit area, Thrissur, rescuers searched inundated houses where they found the bodies of those trapped by the fast-rising flood waters.

“They didn’t think that it would rise this high – 10 to 15 feet (3m to 4.5m) at some places – when the initial warnings were issued,” said Ashraf Ali KM, who is leading the search in the small Thrissur town of Mala.

An Indian navy team built a temporary rope bridge across a stream in Thrissur on Sunday to rescue 100 people who had been stranded for days.

Waters had receded in parts of Pandalam, a central Kerala town, and some residents were returning home.

Abdul Samad, a 56-year-old fish seller, scooped water and rubbish from his devastated concrete home. “When the flood waters came, we were not anticipating a calamity of this kind,” he told Reuters. “But minute by minute the water level began to rise.”

The family had no time to save anything they owned, and fled as water poured over the wall and into their home.

Fishermen have sailed inland from Kerala’s coast to join the search, volunteers have set up soup kitchens and an international appeal had been made for financial help.

The state government said each boat would get 3,000 rupees (£34) for each day of their work and that authorities would pay for any damage to the vessels.

Officials have estimated more than 83,000km of roads will need to be repaired and that the overall recovery will cost at least £2.4bn.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report