20 Dead, Nearly a Half Million Affected by Monsoonal Flooding in India

July 5,2017
Monsoonal flooding in northeastern India has killed at least 20 and affected more than 400,000 people.
Incessant rains in the state of Assam has left 20 dead in the Lakhimpur district and people reeling in 12 other districts as several rivers breached their banks over the weekend, official sources told the United News of Bangladesh.
According to the India Times, a girl drowned Saturday in the flooding. Others died either by drowning or from injuries sustained when structures collapsed, the Assam state Disaster Management Authority told the UNB.
The districts of Karimganj, Lakhimpur and Golaghat have been hardest hit by the flooding, and some 24,000 people are in 108 relief camps, where water and rice are being distributed.
On Tuesday, some 400 students were evacuated after their school was flooded in western Nalbari district, located 55 miles west of Gauhati, the state capital.
An Indian air force helicopter delivering supplies to remote areas of the state went missing during in bad weather, said junior Home Minister Kiren Rijiju, whose helicopter was also forced to make a hard landing in Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh, during a storm.
Cattle stock, houses, infrastructure, roads and farmland are deluged with floodwaters, ANI reports.


Officials are concerned about water-borne illnesses, with children and the elderly most at risk, Clickittefaq reports.Heavy rains occur in India during the summer as the monsoon develops and draws moisture into the region, according to weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce.
Assam saw the monsoonal flow arrive during the first half of June, Dolce said.
(MORE: Scores killed in Devastating China Floods)
Last month, more than 200 were killed in India and Sri Lanka from mudslides and flooding triggered by the annual monsoon.
MORE: Death Toll Nears 200 in Sri Lanka Flood, Mudslides

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