Indian military and civil authorities used speed boats to ferry food and drinking water to hundreds of thousands of villagers cut off by monsoon floods that have killed at least 27 people in the past week, officials said Wednesday. Local authorities also sought to use air force helicopters to drop supplies to more than 50,000 people stranded in nearly 200 villages in West Bengal state where the flooded Keleghai river has cut off road links, said Kalyan Mitra, a district official. The affected villages in West Midnapore district are about 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal state. Flood waters have left another 200,000 people marooned in nearly 300 villages in neighboring Orissa state, Manmohan Samal, the state revenue minister was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
