AUGUST 18,2008. In the wee hours of the day, the river Kosi breaches the embankments in Kusaha, Nepal, leaving in its wake an awesome trail of death and destruction downstream in Bihar's northern plains. Panic-stricken, people run helter skelter ooking for high ground, railway tracks, trees, whatever, to escape the swirling waters. At last count, on August 28, the death toll had touched 55. As many as 25 akh people across 14 districts were affected, 2.5 lakh houses destroyed. It's not for nothing that the Kosi is mown as 'the sorrow of Bihar'. The annual floods is taken as a matter of course, 3Ut this year has been particularly bad. rhe massive breach at Kusaha has cha-iged the course of the Kosi