Flood situation grim in Assam; nearly 1.2 lakh hit

Guwahati: The flood situation in Assam remained grim on Thursday morning with incessant rain across several parts of the state inundating new areas even as nearly 1.2 lakh people were hit due to the deluge in 10 districts, an official bulletin said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an 'orange alert' and predicted 'very heavy' to 'extremely heavy' rainfall across several districts of Assam over the next few days.

IMD's Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Guwahati has issued the warning for 24 hours from Wednesday, followed by a 'yellow' alert for Thursday and Friday.

'Orange' alerts imply to be prepared for action and 'yellow' alert stands for watch and be updated.

According to a flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), over 1,19,800 people are affected by the deluge in Baksa, Barpeta, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Nalbari, Sonitpur and Udalguri districts.

Nalbari is the worst hit with almost 45,000 people suffering, followed by Baksa with over 26,500 and Lakhimpur with more than 25,000, it said.

The administration has been operating 14 relief camps in five districts, where 2,091 people have taken shelter, and running 17 relief distribution centres in five districts.

Army, paramilitary forces, National Disaster Response Force, SDRF, Fire & Emergency Services (F&ES), civil administrations, NGOs and locals have rescued 1,280 people from different places.

At present, 780 villages are under water and 10,591.85 hectares of crop areas have been damaged across Assam, the ASDMA bulletin said.

Massive erosions have been witnessed in Baksa, Barpeta, Sonitpur, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Kamrup, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Nagaon, South Salmara and Udalguri, it said.

Incidents of landslides due to heavy rainfall were reported from places in Dima Hasao and Kamrup Metropolitan.

Embankments, roads, bridges and other infrastructure have been damaged by flood waters in Baksa, Nalbari, Barpeta, Sonitpur, Bongaigaon, Darrang, Chirang, Dhubri, Goalpara, Kamrup, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Udalguri, Dhemaji and Majuli.

Urban areas were inundated at many places across Barpeta, Darrang, Kamrup Metropolitan, Kokrajhar and Nalbari districts.

The Brahmaputra River's tributary Beki is flowing above the danger mark at three places, the ASDMA report pointed out.