Flood situation worsens in Assam, nearly 1.2 lakh people hit

 The flood situation in Assam deteriorated drastically on Wednesday with nearly 1.2 lakh people reeling under the deluge across 10 districts, an official bulletin said.

According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), over 1,19,800 people were hit by the floods 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 people and Lakhimpur with more than 25,000 persons, it added.

Till Tuesday, over 34,000 people were suffering from floods across nine districts.

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

Army, paramilitary forces, NDRF, SDRF, Fire & Emergency Services (F&ES), civil administrations, NGOs and locals have rescued 1,280 persons 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 said.

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

Dima Hasao and Kamrup Metropolitan have reported incidents of landslides due to heavy rainfall, it added 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.

Brahmaputra's tributaries Beki at Road Bridge, Pagladiya at NT Road Crossing and Puthimari at NH Road Crossing are flowing above the danger mark, the ASDMA said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an 'Orange Alert', predicting very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall across several districts over the next few days.

"Moisture incursion is very likely to continue due to strong low-level Southerly/Southwesterly winds from the Bay of Bengal to Northeast India during the next two days.

"Under its influence, widespread rainfall activity with heavy to very heavy with extremely heavy rainfall/ thunderstorm with lightning is very likely to continue over the northeast region during the next two days and likely to decrease gradually thereafter," IMD's Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Guwahati.