Ten more people died in Assam’s devastating floods which has affected a population of 33.03 lakh while Silchar town in Cachar district remained submerged for the fifth consecutive day on Friday, official sources said.
The total death toll due to floods and landslides have increased to 118 with ten deaths reported during the day, including two each from Barpeta, Dhubri, Karimganj and Udalguri while one death each was reported from Cachar and Morigaon.
A total population of 33.03 lakh in 28 districts remained affected due to the floods as against 45.34 lakh in 30 districts on Thursday, according to the bulletin of the Assam State Management Disaster Authority (ASDMA).
The rivers are showing a receding trend with Brahmaputra at Dhubri and Kopili in Nagaon flowing above the danger mark.
The state government has announced that it has further expedited the response and recovery services by engaging the concerned stakeholders and deployment of additional resources and support systems to the severely affected districts, especially Cachar and the two other districts in Barak Valley.
Two drones have been deployed in Silchar for carrying out the flood inundation mapping as well as to provide relief materials to the affected people.
Eight NDRF teams with 207 personnel from Itanagar and Bhubaneswar along with a team of Indian army with 120 personnel and nine boats from Dimapur in Nagaland have been deployed in Silchar.
In addition, 10 CRPF personnel with two high speed boats along with four boats and four SDRF personnel have also been airlifted to Cachar for rescue operation of stranded people, an ASDMA official said.
The Chief Minister after making an aerial survey of the severely affected Silchar town and reviewing the flood scenario in the Barak Valley on Thursday had announced that additional columns of the army will be sent to Silchar for carrying out evacuation of marooned people in the town.
In view of the serious flood situation in Cachar district, the state government has started emergency numbers:0361-2237219, 9401044617 and 1079 (toll free) for any help regarding rescue, relief and other emergent situations of the affected people.
The state government has airlifted 85.2 metric tonnes of relief materials from Jorhat and Guwahati to Silchar.
A population of nearly three lakh has been affected with an acute shortage of food, clean drinking water and medicines as almost the entire town has been submerged in flood waters.
Packets with food, drinking water bottles and other essentials are being airdropped in the town by Indian Air Force helicopters and this will continue till the situation improves, an official said.
The three districts of Barak Valley- Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj were severely affected by the rising water of the Barak and Kushiara.
The worst flood affected districts in the state are Barpeta with 8,76,842 followed by Nagaon with 5,08,475 and Kamrup with 4,01,512, Nagaon with 5,03,308 and Dhubri with 3,99,945 , according to the ASDMA bulletin.
Urban flooding was reported from Cachar, Karimganj and Morigaon.
The devastating floods, caused by incessant rainfall, has affected 93 revenue circles and 3510 villages, while 2,65,788 inmates have taken shelter in 717 relief camps, it said.
Relief materials were distributed from 409 delivery points among flood-hit people who have not taken shelters in the relief camps.
The floods have also damaged 168 roads and 15 bridges while three embankments were breached in Nagaon district.
A crop area of 91,658.49 hectares and 25,99,756 animals have been affected in the current second wave of floods.
Large scale erosion was also reported from Baksa, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Dibrugarh, Darrang, Golaghat, Hailakandi, Kamrup, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Nalbari and Udalguri, the Bulletin stated.
