Rain fury in Assam, West Bengal; 4 killed

Heavy rain wreaked havoc in the eastern states of Assam and West Bengal with four persons dying in landslides, and leaving rivers flooded in Uttar Pradesh.  In Uttar Pradesh, the major rivers such as the Sharda and the Ghaghra are flowing above the ‘red’ mark at Palia Kalan and Elgin Bridge.

The weatherman has warned of “extremely heavy” rains in Assam and Meghalaya and very heavy rains in sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Konkan and Goa and Vidarbha.

Delhi, which received rains over the last three-four days, reeled under sultry conditions, with the humidity levels soaring to 88 per cent and the maximum temperature settling at 37 degrees Celsius. 

The minimum in the city was 28.5 degrees. The maximum temperature in the other three metropolitan cities of Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai settled at 32.3, 32.4 and 27 degrees Celsius. A woman was killed in a landslide in Guwahati as the flood situation in Assam remained grim. The State Disaster Management Authority has sounded an alert for Barpeta and Jorhat districts.

Manas, Noakhanda, Mora Chawlkhowa, Beki rivers are in spate in Barpeta and the Brahmaputra at Majuli in Jorhat.

About 1.41 lakh people have been hit by the current wave of floods in 213 villages in Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Morigaon, Jorhat, Dhemaji and Sivasagar districts. Three members of a family were killed in a landslide triggered by heavy rains at Fincheytaar in Darjeeling Hills.

Heavy rains pounded sub-Himalayan West Bengal but gave a miss to rest of the state. IMD said the region will witness heavy downpour over the next four days. Jalpaiguri was the wettest place in the state, gauging 67 mm rain.