Floods leave 166 dead across Assam and Bihar; affect around 11.1 million people
22 Jul 2019
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The number of dead in the recent floods in eastern India rose to 166 with the number of dead in Assam rising to 64 and the toll climbing to 102 in Bihar, with five more casualties being reported in each of the two states since Saturday.
In Bihar, 72.78 laky people form 12 districts of the state have been hit, while in Assam 3.84 million people were affected in 18 of its 33 districts of the state as floods continued to wreak havoc in the two eastern states.
According to the disaster management department, all the fresh deaths in Bihar were reported from Madhubani district, which accounted for 23 casualties.
With 27 deaths, Sitamarhi remained the worst-affected by the flash floods, which hit the state in the wake of torrential rains in Nepal's Terai region last week.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar visited relief camps in Sitamarhi and Darbhanga districts.
Of the five fresh deaths in Assam, two were reported from Morigaon district and one each from Dhemaji, Goalpara and Kamrup districts, according to the Assam State Disaster Management
Flood water, however, receded in five districts of the north eastern state and the displaced people returned to their kuchcha houses to find most of their dwellings swept away by the torrential rains.
A total of 12 districts, namely, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, East Champaran, Madhubani, Araria, Kishanganj, Supaul, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Saharsa, Katihar and Purnia are hit by floodwaters of different rivers. Altogether 7.28 million people have been badly hit in these districts.
Sitamarhi is the worst affected district where a population of 1.76 million is badly affected, followed by Madhubani with a 1.37 million affected people.
The authorities are running a total of 133 relief camps in three districts where 1,14,921 affected people have taken shelter.
A total of 776 community kitchens is being run in eight of the 12 affected districts to provide food to flood-hit families, a DMD official said.
