By Jatindra Dash BHUBANESWAR, India, June 20 (Reuters) - Flood victims in eastern India took refuge on treetops as monsoon rains swamped homes and continued to spread misery among millions. Swelling rivers continued to break through mud embankments in the country's east and northeast on Friday, killing at least 50 people in the past 10 days and affecting more than three million. Air force helicopters dropped food packets in the eastern state of Orissa, as hundreds of villagers climbed trees, hoping to be rescued as their homes got washed away, officials said. "I have seen hundreds of people living on trees and pleading to be rescued," Jayanarayan Mohanty, a community leader, said. In the eastern city of Jamshedpur, three alligators and a crocodile slipped out of a zoo after heavy rains flooded the park, officials said. The crocodile was later caught, but a park official said the missing alligators were a danger to the people. Heavy monsoon rains also had an impact on coal mining in eastern Jharkhand state, with production at the state-run Central Coalfield Limited down by over 50 percent. In West Bengal, trains services came to a halt in many flood-hit areas and a bridge was destroyed in West Midnapore. Although the army has been called out to provide aid, people in many villages were angry at delays. "We have not got any relief so far, we are homeless and starving for the past three days," said Usharani Manna, a flood victim in West Midnapore district. Prices of essential commodities have shot up across the region as flooding blocked many highways and trucks carrying food and medicine were stranded. (Additional reporting by Nityananda Shukla in Ranchi and Sujoy Dhar in Kolkata; Writing by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Simon Denyer and Jerry Norton) (For the latest Reuters news on India see http://in.reuters.com, for blogs see http://blogs.reuters.com/in/)
A man hands a woman a baby amidst sandbags used for flood levees in Winfield, Missouri June 19, 2008. President George W. Bush got a close-up view of damage from the ...
