Monsoon rains combined with a tropical depression to leave portions of India’s Orissa state flooded starting on September 22, 2007, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). By September 27, every river system except the Mahanadi was flooded. This image, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on September 30, 2007, shows significant flooding in northeastern Orissa, one of the hardest-hit regions of the state.
The most severe flooding shown in the image is around the Brahmani River, where water covers tens of kilometers of land that had been dry a little more than two weeks earlier (lower image). Clouds, light blue and white in this combination of infrared and visible light, still cover parts of the flood scene. Unlike the Bay of Bengal, which is black in these images, the water in the river systems and flood areas is bright blue against a backdrop of green, plant-covered land. This is a sign that mud-laden run-off fills the rivers. A cloud of sediment runs from the mouth of the Mahanadi River into the Bay of Bengal. This sediment may come from floods, but it may also be from coastal erosion. The tropical depression that brought the flood-inducing rain also brought battering waves to the coast of India. As much as 50 meters of shore washed away in the Paradeep port, near the sediment plume, said the IFRC.
The floods are just the latest in a series of floods that have swept across India since the summer monsoon started in June. Earlier in September, MODIS observed extensive flooding in northeastern India’s Bihar state, and Orissa and West Bengal were flooded in July. The late-September flood claimed at least 88 lives in Orissa and West Bengal, reported the AFP news service on September 29. With these new deaths, more than 3,100 people have died as a result of floods or rain throughout India during the 2007 summer monsoon, said AFP.
Daily images of East India are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System.
NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.
