Assam storm kills two, damages 1,500 homes

GUWAHATI - A devastating thunderstorm in Assam overnight has claimed two lives and injured up to 100 people, besides damaging over 1,500 homes, officials said Sunday.

“It was a real devastating storm with the damage quite extensive. We are assessing the damage and doing our best to provide relief to those affected,” state Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Bhumidhar Barman said.

The storm lasted for about 45 minutes late Saturday leaving a trail of destruction in most parts of Assam with the state’s main city of Guwahati among the worst hit.

Most parts of the state plunged into darkness with power supply badly hit as trees fell on high tension wires and electric poles were uprooted.

One person was killed in Goalpara district, while another died in Darrang district in the thunderstorm. The storm was accompanied by heavy rains with wind speed of about 80 km per hour.

The worst hit districts are Kamrup (Rural), Kamrup (Metro), Goalpara, Darrang, Chirang, Baksa, Nalbari and Barpeta.

More than 1,500 homes were damaged and road communication was severely disrupted in several areas with uprooted trees and electric poles blocking highways and other roads.

“Around 100 people were injured in the thunderstorm,” an official said.

In Guwahati, at least 30 people were injured with trees falling on moving vehicles, while flying tin roofs in several areas wounded panic-stricken pedestrians who were caught unawares by the sudden thunderstorm.

This is the second massive thunderstorm to have hit Assam this fortnight. On April 16, a cyclonic storm damaged up to 300 homes in several parts of the state.

The meteorological department Sunday predicted more rain and thunderstorms over most parts of Assam in the next couple of days.

Flash floods triggered by heavy rains have, meanwhile, displaced more than 175,000 people in an estimated 300 villages in Assam, besides claiming the lives of two people.

A government spokesperson the worst hit districts so far are Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Jorhat, and Tinsukia in eastern Assam.

Two youths were drowned Friday in the Dibru river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra in Tinsukia, when they went in a country boat to collect timber floating in the river.

An estimated 125,000 people are displaced in the worst-hit Lakhimpur district alone, about 400 km east of Guwahati.

“Most of the flood-hit people are now taking shelter in raised platforms, on railway tracks and also in government schools and offices so far untouched by the floods,” the minister said.

A Central Water Commission bulletin said the Brahmaputra and its tributaries were flowing above the danger mark in at least eight places.

Gushing floodwaters had breached at least four vital mud embankments in the state.