单选题 After an intense three-month heat wave, Indians in the north and east of the subcontinent were praying hard for rain. Their prayers were heard and answered in the form of a curse. Violent downpours flooded much of the country, drowning more than 500 people and leaving thousands more homeless. Walls of water hit 26 cities and 2,500 villages, washing away bridges, submerging reads and railways in waist- deep torrents, cutting power lines and wiping out animals, crops and factories. In all, the storm destroyed more than $ 1 billion worth of property. The death toll in neighboring Bangladesh rose to nearly 300 since mid-June. More than 400 people died in Nepal and another 700 were missing.
The rains hit India hardest in Punjab (旁遮普邦), which was transformed into a wasteland of collapsed houses and dead cattle. In the village of Doomchheri, 40 km southwest of Chandigarh, Punjab's capital, floods rising to a height of 4m washed away 400 of the 700 homes and destroyed all the crops. Jaswant Kaur and her family of five clung to trees when their mud hut collapsed. One cousin drowned; the other four swam to safety, reaching the second story of a neighbor's home. Wailed Jaswant:" What have we done to be cursed like this ?"
In the country the armed forces were mobilized to help. In Punjab 5,000 uniformed men used helicopters and assault boats to rescue victims isolated by flood, distribute food and medicine and, finally, remove the dead. Near the town of Patiala, 85 km south of Chandigarh, all 16 members of a rescue team drowned when their boat tipped over in 4m waves. One soldier named Sohan Singh could have survived, witnesses reported, but he ordered panic-stricken villagers to cling to him while he struggled toward safety. His body was found four days later, along with two dead villagers whose arms were wrapped around one of his legs.