Killer Rain Lashes Asia and Europe

At least 58 people, most of them Russian vacationers, have died in floods in Russia’s Black Sea region, the Emergencies Ministry said Sunday, as fierce weather continued to hit wide swaths of Europe and Asia.

In India, police put the death toll at 43 after torrential rains triggered flooding and landslides in the northern state of Uttaranchal, nearly 185 miles northeast of the capital, New Delhi. But large areas of the rest of India were suffering their worst drought in at least 14 years.

Erratic monsoon rains have also caused flooding in neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh.

China was battling the effects of floods in its southern Hunan province, where 70 people have died and crops in a main rice-producing area have been damaged. So far this year, about 900 people in China have been killed in seasonal floods.

In South Korea, 14 people have died in the last week as deluges dumped two-fifths of the average annual rainfall on the country. More rain is forecast, and the government has mobilized troops to help deal with the floods.

North Korea, already suffering a severe food shortage, has also reported crops destroyed by torrential rains, but there are no estimates so far of the extent of the damage.

In Russia, an Emergencies Ministry spokesman said 49 bodies had been recovered around the port of Novorossiysk and nine more near the resorts of Sochi and Tuapse.

Russian news agencies said scores of people were still missing, raising the prospect of a significantly higher final death toll, while many hundreds of vacationers were stranded with no immediate means of getting back home.

The flooding, which was accompanied by a violent tornado, forced the evacuation of thousands of vacationers from summer camps and villages along the coast. But the ministry said the worst of the danger had passed and that weather conditions were improving.

During the current flooding and storms in Eastern Europe, about seven people have died in Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

Heavy rains have also brought chaos to southern Germany, Croatia and Italy and less serious flooding to many other parts of Europe, police said Sunday.

In Austria, a dam burst Sunday night in the town of Zwettl, submerging 50 to 60 houses, the Austria Press Agency said, but no injuries were immediately reported.