Five die in Assam flood; 4,500 families homeless in Tripura

The flood situation in Assam worsened on Saturday, with five deaths reported while flash floods affected three districts in Tripura where at least 4,500 families were rendered homeless.

According to a report by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), two persons died in Dhemaji and one person each in Lakhimpur, Kokrajhar and Morigaon districts. With these, the total number of persons losing their lives in this year's flood-related incidents across Assam went up to 89.

ASDMA said 11 lakh people were affected in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Baksa, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara, Morigaon, Golaghat, Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.

The ASDMA report said Dhubri was the worst-affected where 1.92 lakh people were hit, followed by Dhemaji where 1.51 lakh people have been affected by the calamity.

Currently 1,752 villages were under water and over one lakh hectare crop area have been damaged, ASDMA said.

The flood has damaged embankments, roads, bridges and other infrastructures in Dhemaji, Darrang, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Charaideo, Dhubri, Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Majuli, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Barpeta, Baksa, Dima Hasao, Golaghat and Morigaon districts.

Three districts of Tripura were affected by flash floods due to incessant rains and at least 4,500 families were rendered homeless, official sources said. More than 2,000 families were forced to take refuge in different government buildings as large part of the state capital and its low lying outskirts were inundated, state Revenue Minister Badal Chowdhury, who along with District Magistrate of West Tripura district, Milind Ramteke visited the affected areas said. Chowdhury said the water was flowing above the danger level in Howrah river.

District Magistrate of Sipahijala Pradip Chakraborty said that at least 2,500 families were affected due to flood in the district and were sheltered in 60 relief camps opened in the government buildings.

Chowdhury said many parts of Khowai district were also inundated and many people were rendered homeless.

Director of Meteorological department Dilip Saha said the regional weather station here recorded 116.55 mm of rains.

Light to moderate and heavy to heavy rainfall occurred in most places of north east, north central and north west parts of Bihar, Met office said.

As per Met bulletin, Purnea registered 108.8 mm rainfall among four major cities during the day.

In Himachal Pradesh, moderate rains occurred in some parts as monsoon remained subdued and there was no significant change in maximum and minimum temperatures.