An alert railroad man frantically waved a crowded train to a halt and averted a possible accident Sunday when he found 200 meters (650 feet) of track washed away by floods, as 15 new deaths were reported from other areas cut off by heavy monsoon rains. In many cities, residents steered boats through submerged roads as flooding subsided in some areas but washed through new ones, officials said. At least five women and two men were killed in flash flooding in the Ghawanda river in the Yavatmal district of the western Maharashtra state and six others were missing, Press Trust of India quoted local administrator Harshdeep Kamble as saying. Kamble said the flooding occurred when a local dam burst, sweeping away 13 people. About 1,000 people from more than 350 slum huts were shifted overnight to safer places, he said. In southern India, at least eight people were killed in Andhra Pradesh state, said disaster management commissioner Shashank Goel. More than 3,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the state capital Hyderabad and moved to government school buildings and community centers, he said. A train going from the state's Secunderabad to Warangal towns narrowly averted an accident when a railways employee found a long stretch of the track washed or extensively damaged by flood waters, said D.N. Mathur, general manager of the regional railway services. The employee, who uses the single name Bukkaiah, waved off the engineer, who was able to stop the train a few meters (feet) from the breach at Nashkal town, 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Andhra Pradesh capital of Hyderabad. Train services on the route have been canceled until Monday, he said. Service has been affected in many parts of the country, with trains being canceled or running several hours late.
