Flash floods leave 40,000 homeless

Flash foods caused by heavy rains in Arunachal Pradesh have left about 40,000 people homeless in Assam8217;s easternmost Dhemaji district. On Friday, authorities shifted about half of them to relief camps. The flash floods also washed away a portion of a bridge on NH-52 at Samarajan, disrupting movement of rescue teams and transportation of relief materials.

Dhemaji Additional Deputy Commissioner Rudreswar Das told The Indian Express over phone that though the water level had receded by about a metre since Thursday, residents of about 120 villages under Bordoloni and Gogamukh block were still badly affected. Official reports said the Kumotiya and Jiyadhal, tributaries of the Brahmaputra that come down from Arunachal Pradesh, had breached embankments at three spots on Thursday morning, with the gushing waters inundating the villages within a couple of hours.

8220;While we have been able to accommodate about 20,000 people in relief camps, a large number of people are still put up on embankments and other high lands,8221; Das said.