In a Twitter statement released by his office, he said there had been “324 lives lost”, a tripling of the death toll in the last 24 hours. Vijayan added that 223,139 people have been moved to more than 1,500 relief camps. With thousands still trapped, power and communication lines down and fresh alerts of further torrential rain, authorities warned of even more trouble ahead. Extra troops have been sent in and local fishermen have also joined the operation with their boats. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to arrive in the stricken state on Friday night.

Source: The Guardian August 17, 2018 14:37 UTC