Rain fury wreaks havoc in Northeast, thousands moved to shelters, schools shut

On Sunday, the rain continued and left areas across 19 districts in Assam flooded, with the Barak Valley experiencing the most acute effects of this.

According to a rainfall bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department on Sunday afternoon, the Silchar station in the Barak Valley’s Cachar district recorded 42 cm of rainfall over the previous 24 hours. The Karimganj and Hailakandi stations in the Barak Valley received 35 cm and 30 cm of rain, respectively.

Multiple rivers across Assam, including the Brahmaputra at different locations, the Katakhal river in Hailakandi district, the Barak river in Karimganj district, and the Buridehing river in Tinsukia district, were flowing above the danger level with a rising trend on Sunday.

Residents row their makeshift raft in a flood-affected area in Assam’s Lakhimpur district on Sunday. (PTI)

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said he spoke with the Chief Ministers of Assam, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, and the Governor of Manipur about the heavy rainfall and “assured them of every possible help to tackle any situation”.

According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority’s daily flood report, 1,44,527 people across the state have been affected by floods as of Sunday evening, with the highest numbers affected in Cachar and Sribhumi districts — 41,393 and 32,311 people, respectively. Lakhimpur district in north Assam and Nagaon district in central Assam have also been acutely affected, with 21,868 people and 14,798 people affected respectively. Over 10,000 people across the state have been moved to relief camps.

Two people died in the flooding in the Barak Valley. With intense waterlogging in Silchar, the principal town in the Barak Valley, and flooding in the rest of the district, the Cachar district administration announced that all schools across the district will remain shut on Monday and Tuesday. Four trains running through the Barak Valley have been cancelled for the next four days by the Northeast Frontier Railway because of a stretch of tracks between Baraigram and Dullabcherra becoming non-operable due to water flowing over it.

Manipur is experiencing intense flooding as well, with several rivers flowing above flood levels. As of 8 pm on Sunday, over the course of 24 hours, 1,401 houses had been damaged and 55 people were evacuated from their homes by the SDRF, police and fire services, and moved to relief camps. The state had also experienced 33 landslides in different locations in the same period. With these conditions, the Governor ordered the extension of summer vacation in all schools in Imphal East and West districts and the Senapati sub-division of Senapati district until further orders.

In Mizoram, the Deputy Commissioner of Aizawl district directed the closure of all schools on Monday, citing the safety and well-being of students amid mudflows, landslides, rockfalls and other calamities that have taken place due to heavy rainfall.

The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall across all states in the region over the next 24 hours, with a high likelihood of “extremely heavy rainfall” in isolated parts of Assam and Tripura.