Three people were killed in landslides and one was swept away by floodwaters and is feared dead in Assam and Meghalaya even as the number of people affected by the deluge in Assam crossed 37,500 last week.
Two siblings, Cafinia Nongsiej (15) and Maianylla Nongsiej (10), were buried alive in a landslide at Dommawlein under Pyndengrei village in West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya. In Guwahati, one daily wager, Mukhtar Ali (34), lost his life when the guard wall of his rented house collapsed due to loosening of soil after incessant rain and fell on his room. Rescuers had to dig out his body from inside the debris.
In the meanwhile, a boy was swept away by floodwaters in Assam’s Tezpur, where the tributaries of the Brahmaputra have inundated many villages. The boy was still untraceable. In Assam, 13 districts and subdivisions have been affected by the first wave of floods this year, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said. Of the 13 districts, Cachar, Kamrup (Metro) and Nalbari are reeling from urban flooding.
About 34,000 people were affected by floods in the state. The IMD has again issued an ‘orange warning’ when heavy to extremely heavy rain is likely across the northeast. As per Central Water Commission data, the Brahmaputra and its tributaries Puthimari and Kopili were flowing above the danger mark at some places.
Cherrapunji, one of the wettest places on earth, and Nongstoin, both in Meghalaya, received extremely heavy rainfall. The ASDMA bulletin said 37,535 people, including 16,313 women and 3,868 children, were affected by floods in Assam. The highest, 25,275 people, have been hit in upper Assam’s Lakhimpur district, followed by 3,857 in Dibrugarh and 3,631 in Biswanath subdivision in northern Assam’s Sonitpur district.