The flood situation continued worsen in Assam as over three lakhs people are reeling under floods now even as three civilians including a child were killed by the recent flash of floods. The monsoon had hit the State on June 6 this year and rains continued incessantly in most of the areas of the State since June 8 till Saturday adding to the woes of the marooned people in over 600 villages in 15 districts.
While one person died in lakhimpur in last few days, a child and another civilian were washed away at Goalpara and Baksa Districts respectively on Saturday—taking the total death toll this year to three. The State disaster management authority (SDMA) on Saturday said that 15 districts including, Barpeta, Sonitpur, Dhemaji, lakhimpur, Kokrajhar, Tinsukia, Darrang, Jorhat, Baksa, Dubrugarh, Kamrup (Rural), Nagaon, Morigaon, Goalpara and Dhubri Districts have been affected due to floods.
SDMA officials said that a total of 3,17,182 people are reeling under floods in a total of 614 villages in the 15 affected districts. A total of 1,780 flood-hit people have been taking shelter at 11 relief camps opened by the district administration in Tinsukia, Sonitpur and Goalpara Districts. The condition is more serious in Barpeta, where 234 villages remained submerged, Sonitpur with 122 villages under the grip of floods, Morigaon with over 50 villages under water and in Darrang District where 33 villages have been submerged.
The Assam Government said that the State has experienced 14 breaches of embankments in the current spell of flood—10 in Nalbari District, three in Sonitpur District and one in Karimganj District. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday directed the concerned district administrations to take steps for making food stuff, medicine and other essential commodities ready to face any exigencies even as one person died due to floods on Friday.
Gogoi also asked the districts to keep the additional boats ready to be used for any rescue and relief operations in any of the flood affected districts in the days to come. The flood situation might worsen further as the meteorological department in the State had forecast more rains in the days to come. The Central Water Commission (CWC) on Saturday said that the river Brahmaputra is flowing above danger level at Nematighat in Jorhat District and at Dhubri District. The concerned district administration had since Friday stopped river transport in districts where the river is flowing above danger level. The suspension of river transport had also cut of Majuli Island in Assam from the rest of the State since Friday.