Photos show how one New Delhi family is coping after being displaced twice by floods

NEW DELHI (AP) — When the floodwaters of the Yamuna River gushed into Bindu Pandey’s home in New Delhi, she knew her family had to leave instantly.

“We got scared. The children were crying. We had to take out our children from there,” 40-year-old Pandey said.

Forced to abandon their belongings, the family sought shelter in a relief tent arranged by the authorities near their flooded homes. On Friday, days of torrential rains left that shelter tent inundated as well and the family was shifted into a school some 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) away.

The Yamuna River originates in the Himalayas and runs through India’s capital city of New Delhi. Families like Pandey’s who live near its banks have been subjected to temporary displacements in the past after widespread flooding in monsoon season. But this season’s rains have been much heavier than recent years, making the river breach danger levels and putting hundreds of low-lying areas at risk.

Pandey said her family was also affected by flooding in 2023.

“Sometimes we feel we should relocate, but when the flooding ends we just want to live there,” Pandey said.

Pandey said there is not much she will be able to salvage from her flooded home when the waters recede. She is worried that the accumulated sludge and mud will take a lot of effort, money and energy to clear away.

She is also particularly concerned about her children’s study books, which she says must have been destroyed in the floods.

“We had placed them on racks. How will my children read from those books now?” she asked.

Every year, the monsoon brings 80% of South Asia’s annual rainfall in a season that starts in June and ends in mid-September. But in recent years, it has become erratic and more extreme, delivering death and destruction through floods and landslides.

In August, heavy rains, flash-floods and cloudbursts battered much of north India, killing hundreds of people and displacing over a million more. They also destroyed homes and thousands of acres of agricultural crops.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

A person wades through flooded water carrying drinking water battles for the residents stuck in their house after the river Yamuna, swollen by incessant rain in the higher regions, overran its banks, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

People stand in a queue for food in a temporary school shelter, which houses residents displaced from the banks of the Yamuna River by incessant rain in the higher regions in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Bindu Pandey, left, eats lunch with her relative in a temporary school shelter, which houses residents displaced from the banks of the Yamuna River by incessant rain in the higher regions, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Bindu Pandey, center, takes food in a temporary school shelter, which houses residents displaced from the banks of the Yamuna River by incessant rain in the higher regions in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Bindu Pandey, right, talks to her relatives in a temporary school shelter, which houses residents displaced from the banks of the Yamuna River by incessant rain in the higher regions, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Bindu Pandey, center, cover her nose as officials fumigate in a temporary school shelter, which houses residents displaced from the banks of the Yamuna River by incessant rain in the higher regions in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Bindu Pandey, center, drinks water after reaching in a temporary school shelter, which houses residents displaced from the banks of the Yamuna River by incessant rain in the higher regions in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

People help a rickshaw driver carrying gas cylinders to cross flooded water after the river Yamuna, swollen by incessant rain in the higher regions, overran its banks, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Soldiers from National Disaster Relief Force talk before starting the rescue operation after the river Yamuna, swollen by incessant rain in the higher regions, overran its banks, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A couple drinks tea sitting in front of their inundated house after the river Yamuna, swollen by incessant rain in the higher regions, overran its banks, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Commuters wade through the flooded water on a road after the river Yamuna, swollen by incessant rain in the higher regions, overran its banks, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

The swollen Yamuna river by incessant rain in the higher regions flows dangerously close to an old Iron bridge in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Residents of a Tibetan refugee colony use boat after the Yamuna river, swollen by incessant rain in the higher regions, overran its banks in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A volunteer lifts a young girl onto his shoulders, carrying her to a safer place after evacuating her and others by boat after the river Yamuna, swollen by incessant rain in the higher regions, overran its banks, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Commuters wade through the flooded water on a road after the river Yamuna, swollen by incessant rain in the higher regions, overran its banks, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A stray dog sits on the top of a wall surrounded with flooded water after the river Yamuna, swollen by incessant rain in the higher regions, overran its banks, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Bindu Pandey, 40, right, leaves her flooded house to a temporary shelter in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Bindu Pandey, 40, left, sits on the wall near the floodwaters of the swollen Yamuna River, leaving behind her inundated home on the banks to seek refuge in a temporary shelter, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Bindu Pandey, 40, center, wades through the floodwaters of the swollen Yamuna River, leaving behind her inundated home on the banks to seek refuge in a temporary shelter, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Bindu Pandey, 40, walks on the top of a wall surrounded by flooded waters of the swollen Yamuna River which inundated her residence on the banks of the river in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

HAMIMA, Syria (AP) — A trickle of civilians left a contested area east of Aleppo on Thursday after a warning by the Syrian military to evacuate ahead of an anticipated government military offensive against Kurdish-led forces.

Government officials and some residents who managed to get out said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces prevented people from leaving via the corridor designated by the military along the main road leading west from the town of Maskana through Deir Hafer to the town of Hamima.

The SDF denied the reports that they were blocking the evacuation.

In Hamima, ambulances and government officials were gathered beginning early in the morning waiting to receive the evacuees and take them to shelters, but few arrived.

Farhat Khorto, a member of the executive office of Aleppo Governorate who was waiting there, claimed that there were "nearly two hundred civilian cars and hundreds of people who wanted to leave” the Deir Hafer area but that they were prevented by the SDF. He said the SDF was warning residents they could face “sniping operations or booby-trapped explosives” along that route.

Some families said they got out of the evacuation zone by taking back roads or going part of the distance on foot.

“We tried to leave this morning, but the SDF prevented us. So we left on foot … we walked about seven to eight kilometers until we hit the main road, and there the civil defense took us and things were good then,” said Saleh al-Othman, who said he fled Deir Hafer with more than 50 relatives.

Yasser al-Hasno, also from Deir Hafer, said he and his family left via back roads because the main routes were closed and finally crossed a small river on foot to get out of the evacuation area.

Another Deir Hafer resident who crossed the river on foot, Ahmad al-Ali, said, “We only made it here by bribing people. They still have not allowed a single person to go through the main crossing."

Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the SDF, said the allegations that the group had prevented civilians from leaving were “baseless.” He suggested that government shelling was deterring residents from moving.

The SDF later issued a statement also denying that it had blocked civilians from fleeing. It said that “any displacement of civilians under threat of force by Damascus constitutes a war crime" and called on the international community to condemn it.

“Today, the people of Deir Hafer have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to their land and homes, and no party can deprive them of their right to remain there under military pressure,” it said.

The Syrian army’s announcement late Wednesday — which said civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday — appeared to signal plans for an offensive against the SDF in the area east of Aleppo. Already there have been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides.

Thursday evening, the military said it would extend the humanitarian corridor for another day.

The Syrian military called on the SDF and other armed groups to withdraw to the other side of the Euphrates River, to the east of the contested zone. The SDF controls large swaths of northeastern Syria east of the river.

The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo city that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods.

The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF over an agreement reached last March to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.

Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The SDF for years has been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with Kurdish separatist insurgents in Turkey.

Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the clashes in Aleppo.

Ilham Ahmed, head of foreign relations for the SDF-affiliated Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria, at a press conference Thursday said SDF officials were in contact with the United States and Turkey and had presented several initiatives for de-escalation. She said that claims by Damascus that the SDF had failed to implement the March agreement were false.

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Associated Press journalist Hogir Al Abdo in Qamishli, Syria, contributed.

Members of the Syrian military police stand at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, stand next to their vehicles at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A displaced Syrian family rides in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army next to a river in the village of Rasm Al-Abboud, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Displaced Syrian children and women ride in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Displaced Syrians at a river crossing near the village of Jarirat al Imam, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)