Natural Disasters

Assam floods 2023: Around 34,000 people affected; IMD predicts heavy rain for next 5 days

Assam gets 2,818 millimetres of rainfall in a year and has received nearly 10 per cent of the rains in the last 10 days

 
By DTE Staff
Published: Monday 19 June 2023

After western parts of India were ravaged by cyclone Biparjoy, now things are getting dangerous in the northeast parts of India. An active monsoon system has brought heavy rains in the Brahmaputra valley causing floods and displacing thousands of people in Assam.

According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), more than 33,400 people are hit due to floods across 12 districts. These districts include Cachar, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Hojai, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sonitpur, Tinsukia and Udalguri.

Lakhimpur is the worst-hit district with over 25,200 people affected by the flood, followed by Dibrugarh with more than 3,800 and Tinsukia with almost 2,700.

Assam gets 2,818 millimetres of rainfall in a year and has received nearly 10 per cent of the rains in the last 10 days. At present, 142 villages in Assam are underwater and around 1,500 hectares of crop areas have been damaged across the state.

Flood floods have also destroyed four embankments, 20 roads, 2 bridges, irrigation canals and many schools in the previous 24 hours.

The latest ASDMA report also mentions that massive erosions due to the overflowing of the Brahmaputra’s tributaries have been witnessed in Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Dibrugarh, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Nagaon, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, South Salmara and Udalguri districts.

The administration has been operating one relief camp and 16 relief distribution centres in 3 districts.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department on June 18, 2023, issued a ‘red’ alert, predicting ‘very heavy’ to ‘extremely heavy’ rainfall across several districts of Assam over the next few days.

The state has seen several devastating floods over the last few years. Other than in 2022, floods occurred in 2019 and 2020 as well.

However, despite all the information available, disaster control authorities still need to prepare. Last year’s floods from June 14 to 29 killed 124 people, the IMD had earlier said on the basis of media reports.

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