Southern India is witnessing its worst floods in almost a century. More than 30 people have been killed and tens of thousands, displaced. CGTN's Shweta Bajaj reports from the hard-hit state of Kerala.

It's been 5 days since 51-year-old Katyani came to this camp. She and her 29-year-old son fled after three-quarters of their small home was submerged in water. Katyani is one of 100 people who has made this school home, until the water recedes. 27 families have taken shelter at this camp. All of whom have lost their homes to the floods in the Southern Indian state of Kerala.

KATYANI EVACUEE "When water came in we ran away with whatever we could grab. The water came very fast. We had to save our lives. We lost so many things. Many of our belongings are still inside. We don't know what happened to them."

But not all were so lucky. 39 people have lost their lives in the state's worst flooding since 1924. Kerala has seen violent and torrential rains that have led to landslides. And the state has suffered 1.2 billion dollars worth of losses. Many areas like this still remain inundated with water.

SHWETA BAJAJ KERALA, INDIA "So this is one of the areas that has been badly affected by the floods. Of course, there was no water here initially, there were streets here though the water in many places have gone down. There are people in some of these houses they can't come out or get in. It's a long road before they actually get some sort of normalcy."

Rescue operations are being conducted on a war footing by the government and India's defense forces. The worst natural disasters to hit the southern Indian state has left more than 54,000 people displaced and damaged around 20,000 houses. More than 1,000 hectares of crops have been hit by the flooding. Velayudhan comes from this village. We went to see his house, which is still under water. He and his family of 5 people are living in this camp. He says, it will be a while before things start looking sunny again.

VELAYUDHAN EVACUEE "In our village, everyone's houses were destroyed. It will be a long time before we can go back. I have no idea how long it will take and where my family and I will go. It will take a long time to re-build."

The state government has had to open the gates of water reservoirs to avoid the tragedy from getting even worse. Over 400 rescue workers from the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed and rescue operations continue. Other than locals, many tourists were also caught in the rains and were rescued from private resorts.

India sees heavy monsoons every year from June to August, but the rains are seen as the lifeline of India's agriculture despite the possibility of it wreaking havoc. For the state of Kerala, though it is used to seeing heavy rains this time of year, life has been brought to a halt with unprecedented heavy rain. Shweta Bajaj, CGTN, Kerala, India.