Assam and Floods--Brother's in Arms . Bonded together for eternity.
Flood havoc in Assam, rescuers battle against odds
IANS
GUWHATI: Rescuers battled to move hundreds of thousands of people trapped by floodwaters to safety in India's Assam state on Monday as flash floods washed away 105 villages, marooning up to 120,000 people.
The floods, triggered by heavy rains, had already submerged several villages in the deluged state on Sunday, leaving up to 40,000 people homeless.
Torrential overnight rains led to a major breach in an embankment at Arnoi Chapori in the eastern district of Dhemaji, 465 km from Assam's principal city Guwahati, washing away a cluster of villages.
"Some 50 meters of the dyke was breached by the gushing floodwaters Monday morning. About 85 to 90 villages were washed away after the embankment burst," Dhemaji district magistrate Biswaranjan Samal told IANS by telephone.
At least 100,000 people in Dhemaji have been left homeless in Monday's flooding.
"Police and other civic workers in country boats have !
rescued thousands of villagers who were trapped in the middle of their villages," the official said.
"The affected people, most of them tribal Mishings, are so familiar with flooding that they somehow manage to reach to safety," Samal said. "The Mishing people virtually reside in the midst of the river and therefore have tremendous anticipatory skills before an impending danger."
In the adjoining North Lakhimpur district, at least 20 villages have come under waist deep water after a breach in an embankment.
"At least 20,000 people have been left homeless after an embankment at Dirgha burst early Monday," B. Doley, additional district magistrate of North Lakhimpur, said by telephone. "Relief and rescue operations are continuing on a war footing."
Since July 1, when the monsoon rains began in Assam in earnest, up to 1.1 million people have had to leave their homes. More than half of them returned in the past week or so after the waters receded.
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Others whose homes were destroyed or are still under water have remained cramped into relief camps, government buildings and schools on higher ground.
"There are still more than half-a-million people staying at makeshift camps with their houses either completely damaged or their villages still under water," Assam Flood Control Minister Nurzamal Sarkar said Monday.
"Although 50 percent of the people have returned home after the floodwaters receded, most of them were left with virtually nothing after the surging waters destroyed their properties and livestock," Sarkar said.
The worst affected district, Dhemaji -- about 465 km from the state capital Guwahati -- has been cut off from the rest of Assam for three weeks.
"We are providing food and other relief supplies to the marooned people," Samal said, adding that he expected some would have to remain in the relief camps for two to three months.
Five people have been killed in the last 15 !
days due to floods in Assam.
A Central Water Commission bulletin said the river Brahmaputra was flowing above the danger mark in at least eight different locations in Assam and was likely to rise further.
In Arunachal Pradesh, a picturesque state spanning snowy Himalayan slopes, 300 people were evacuated from their homes on Sunday after a severe mudslide near the state capital Itanagar, an official said.
"Road links between the Arunchal Pradesh capital Itanagar and the rest of India were cut off on Sunday due to mudslides, but since then we have managed to clear the road for small vehicles," the district magistrate of Itanagar, B. Kumar, said by telephone.
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