Rupinder Kaur & Rinita Singh: • For the first time in more than a century, monsoon hit India two weeks earlier than expected, causing major flooding leading to loss of life and property, especially in the Northeast. About 54 people have died in the floods so far and more than 35 lakh have been affected, with more than 3 lakh people rendered homeless. The situation has now started improving with the rain finally easing off and the rivers receding, allowing rescue workers and the military to undertake relief operations.

• In China, heavy rains have forced the evacuation of 1.66 million people this month, and killed 171. Flooding has struck as far north as Longnan, on the southern tip of Gansu province, north of Sichuan. Meteorologists forecast downpours for nine provinces, including already-battered Guangdong, Guanxi, Hunan and Jiangxi, across south and east China. Meteorologists have warned that the Yellow River flowing through the north may also see “quite large” floods.

• Early this year, devastating floods had hit Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru as a weather abnormality known as La Nina brought some of the heaviest rains in a quarter-century, swelling rivers and bursting banks. Ecuador and Peru both declared states of emergency.

• The east coast of Australia saw record rainfall during the first week of 2008. The rain caused floods that left many residents stranded. The floods across Queensland in the early part of this year were the result of a rain deluge that affected the state, far and wide. Thousands of people remained stranded by some of the worst flooding eastern Australia has seen in 20 years.

• Early this year, major floods plunged southern Africa into a humanitarian crisis, killing dozens and displacing thousands. In Mozambique, the UN said the floods could be the worst in living memory as raging waters threatened to engulf farmland and wreck roads and bridges. In Zimbabwe, state media has reported dozens of deaths since mid-December.

• In the US, the Mississippi river seemed to have finally crested after the worst Midwest floods in 15 years ruined cropland and drove up food prices. The violent rush overcame more than two dozen levees this week, submerging small towns and vast stretches of prime farmland as the nation's most important river absorbed the runoff of torrential rains that put many Iowa towns under water last week.In Illinois and Missouri, residents and officials battled to contain the Mississippi after flooding that has resulted in 24 deaths and thousands of evacuations across six states.

editor@expressindia.com