Title: ELCA ASSISTS WITH RELIEF EFFORTS IN WEST BENGAL ELCA NEWS SERVICE September 12, 1997 ACT ASSISTS WEST BENGAL FLOOD VICTIMS Incessant and torrential monsoon rains inundated large areas of Midnapore district in West Bengal, India, this summer. An estimated 16,000 houses have collapsed due to flooding and at least 100,000 people are homeless, Action by Churches Together (ACT) reports. Drinking water sources, roads, embankments, infrastructure and crop lands have been damaged extensively or destroyed. Around one million people have been affected, ACT reports. Vulnerable familes are in "immediate and acute need of food, temporary shelter and assistance in rebuilding their homes," according to ACT. ACT is a worldwide network of churches, including the Lutheran World Federation, meeting human need through coordinated emergency response. ACT has appealed for $422,000 to provide food rations, supplemental feeding, refurbished water wells and housing construction materials to an estimated 5,000 families in the Midnapore district. The situation in many areas is "even worse than it was during the floods of 1978, which were the most severe floods experienced by West Bengal in recent memory," ACT says. Water flowing over agricultural fields has destroyed standing crops of rice in many areas. People have taken shelter on embankments, roads and highways. The Lutheran World Federation is a worldwide communion of 124 member churches, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html