Only seven figures

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

India floods leave 2.5 million homeless, 250 dead

HYDERABAD, India, Oct. 5, 2009 (Reuters) – Rescue workers used sandbags to stop a raging river from breaching its embankment near a southern Indian city on Monday as floods triggered by heavy rains over the last week left 2.5 million people homeless.

The flooding, described by officials as the worst in many decades in south India, has killed some 250 people, mostly in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. At least five million people are crammed in temporary government shelters.

Since I’ve started getting involved in being an advocate for the homeless, I’m becoming increasingly aware of where the big jobs are, and they’re not in the USA.

Even here, there is so much tragedy, so many lost people, so much pain, so much misunderstanding.

But when I read newspaper headlines like this one, I feel so dwarfed in my efforts to promote awareness of the homeless in the USA.

Two point five million people homeless.

I read this, and I want comparisons, I want numbers, I want to know how many football fields two point five million people would fill stood end to end.

I want to think about, well that’s about 1% of the population of the USA, well a little less.

Only two point five million.

Of course, we’ve got over a million homeless kids alone, in the USA, so maybe that’s not such a big number.

Only seven figures, after all.

Only seven figures.

Same article:

Traders also estimated the flooding would hit corn output by at least one million tonnes in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which account for about 35 percent of India’s total corn production.

Oh, well THAT’s going to help a lot.

One week of flood in India, 2.5 million homeless.