‘Our whole village went under water’: The devastating impact of Assam floods
Unprecedented flooding in Assam has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and claimed 27 lives. Residents in the Upper Assam districts report that the scale of the disaster is unlike anything seen in decades.
Why it matters
The rapid escalation of the flood crisis highlights the increasing vulnerability of regional infrastructure to extreme weather events.
Through a long and sleepless night, Prasanta Borthakur’s family, including his 95-year-old father, spent hours perched on chairs they had placed on their beds as flood waters entered their house in Nazira, in Assam’s Sivasagar district. The water had begun to rise rapidly between 5 pm and 7 pm on Sunday evening, and soon, it had entered their home in the Rajapul area and rose up to their chests. After sending out frantic calls and distress messages through the evening and night, a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team reached them on a boat on Monday morning and evacuated them. “Ours is the highest house in Rajapul, and till date, we have never had water enter our house. Forget in my lifetime, my father said that he has never seen such flooding in his 95 years.
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