Lightning strikes in India kill 38 people in 24 hours

Lightning has killed at least 38 people across two Indian states over the past 24 hours, officials said Monday.

A majority of the deaths occurred in the western state of Rajasthan, where 11 people died after being struck by lightning near a watchtower at the 12th century Amber Fort, police said.

Senior police officer Anand Srivastava said some of the victims were taking selfies near the watchtower when lightning struck late Sunday. Srivastava said at least nine more people were killed and nearly 20 others were injured in separate lightning strikes when the state was lashed with thunderstorms and monsoon rains.

In Uttar Pradesh, 18 people were killed by lightning on Sunday, said Manoj Dixit, a government official. Most of those killed were farm laborers working in fields.

A singular storm in Houston; a recurring nightmare in Mumbai

Two massive, rain-soaked cities on opposite sides of the world are struggling with swirling, brackish waters that have brought death and devastation. For Houston, it’s unprecedented. For Mumbai, it’s painfully common.

For India’s financial capital and other South Asian cities and farmlands, floods are regular, cataclysmic occurrences made worse by breakneck urban development and population booms that will only become more challenging as climate change increases disaster risk.

Torrential rains bring India’s financial hub to a halt

Torrential monsoon rains paralyzed India’s financial capital Mumbai for a second day Wednesday as the streets turned into rivers and people waded through waist-deep waters.

On Tuesday, the city received about 5 inches (127 millimeters) of rain and it’s already hamstrung infrastructure collapsed. Public transport stopped and thousands of commuters were stranded in their offices overnight.

Flooding maroons people in Indian states, eases in Nepal

Monsoon flooding is easing in Nepal, but the water flowing downriver has worsened floods in northern India and marooned thousands of villagers across the border, officials said Thursday.

The existing flood situation was aggravated in Uttar Pradesh state after three rivers became swelled with the waters from Nepal, said disaster relief official Mohammad Zameer Ahmad. At least six deaths have occurred since Wednesday.

Ahmad said Thursday that over 300 villages were marooned in no time and thousands of people were forced to move to higher ground.

48 dead as heavy monsoon rains lash western India

At least 48 people have been killed as large swaths of western India have been lashed by heavy monsoon rains and flooding over the last week, officials said Wednesday.

In Rajasthan, home to a number of popular tourist destinations, the streets of at least four districts have been turned into virtual rivers, trapping tens of thousands of people on the upper floors of residential buildings. Rescue workers were scrambling to rescue thousands of others whose homes have been flooded or destroyed.

By Wednesday, the death toll in the state stood at 19.

Scientific robots to swim in Bay of Bengal in monsoon study

To better understand and predict South Asia's seasonal monsoon, scientists are getting ready to release robots in the Bay of Bengal in a study of how ocean conditions might affect rainfall patterns.

The monsoon, which hits between June and September, delivers more than 70 percent of India's annual rainfall. Its arrival is eagerly awaited by hundreds of millions of subsistence farmers, and delays can ruin crops or exacerbate drought.

India officials investigate negligence after 18 patients die

Indian authorities were investigating possible negligence after 18 hospital patients died when rainwaters from massive floods in southern Tamil Nadu state knocked out generators and switched off ventilators.

The patients were in the intensive care unit at MIOT International hospital in the state capital of Chennai when floodwaters seeped into the room with the generators, cutting off power to the building and the ventilators earlier this week, state Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said Saturday.

18 die in India hospital as floods cut off power

Severe floods that hit the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu this week have killed 18 patients after rain waters knocked out generators, officials said Saturday.

State officials were investigating complaints of negligence by hospital authorities in the state capital Chennai, which is reeling from unprecedented floods.

The 18 patients were in the intensive care unit when a power outage affected ventilators in the hospital, leading to their deaths over the past two to three days, said Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan.

More rains coming as south India grapples with massive flood

The heaviest rainfall in more than 100 years has devastated swathes of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, forcing thousands to leave their submerged homes as schools, offices and an airport remained shut for a second day Thursday.

Chennai, the state capital, received more than 330 millimeters (13 inches) of rain over 24 hours, significantly higher than the average for the entire month of December, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.

More rains coming as south India grapples with massive flood

The heaviest rainfall in more than 100 years has devastated swathes of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, with thousands forced to leave their submerged homes and schools, offices and a regional airport shut for a second day Thursday.

At least 269 people had been killed in the state since heavy rains started in the beginning of November, said India's Home Minister Rajnath Singh, although no deaths have been reported in the latest deluge.

Hundreds feared buried under Sri Lanka mudslide

A mudslide triggered by monsoon rains buried scores of workers' houses at a tea plantation in central Sri Lanka, raising fears that hundreds may have been killed.

In the chaos that followed Wednesday morning's disaster, there was confusion about the number of dead and missing because government officials reported different figures and later reduced the number of missing by 100 without explanation.

Armed bandits demand water in dry northern India

Armed bandits in drought-stricken northern India are threatening to kill hundreds of villagers unless they deliver 35 buckets of water each day to the outlaws in their rural hideouts.

Since the threats were delivered last week, 28 villages have been obeying the order, taking turns handing over what the bandits are calling a daily "water tax," police said Monday.

Rain

A woman accompanies a child home from school in the rain in Kolkata, India, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. Normal traffic was affected in several areas of the city because of overnight rainfall that caused water-logging, according to news reports.

Monsoon floods kill 11 in India, maroon thousands

Indian authorities rushed food and drinking water Saturday to thousands of people marooned by monsoon rains and mudslides that left at least 11 dead in the remote northeast.