The flood situation in Assam and Bihar remained grim on Thursday with the death toll crossing the 100-figure mark while three districts in Kerala braced for extremely heavy rains with the IMD issuing a red alert for the next three days.
Parts of north and eastern India were lashed by rains andthe Army was called out in Punjab’s Sangrur district following a 50-foot breachin the Ghaggarriver that inundated over 2,000 acres of agricultural field andinhabitants of a few nearby villages fled fearing flood threat.
A total 78 people have died so far in the flash floods thathave hit Bihar in the wake of torrential rainfall in adjoining Nepal, the statedisaster management department said.
Of Assam’s 33 districts, 28 remained under the grip offloods that has displaced nearly 54 lakh people and killed 36 people.
The mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries are flowing abovethe danger mark in Guwahati and other parts of the state, and according to theAssam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), 53,52,107 people are reelingunder the impact of the deluge.
Nine fresh deaths — three from Morigaon, two fromBiswanath, and one each from Sonitpur, Udalguri, Bongaigaon and Barpetadistricts — were reported on Thursday, the ASDMA said.
Meanwhile, in Kerala, the IMD has sounded a red alert inIdukki, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam districts which are likely to receiveextremely heavy rainfall upwards of 20 cm in the next two to three days.
A red alert is a call to immediately take preventive stepsand move people from vulnerable areas to shelter camps and provide them withemergency kits.Other districts are predicted to get isolatedheavy to very heavy rains on these days, though a red alert has not been issuedfor them.