Shillong (Meghalaya), Oct 6: India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for the next 24 hours, predicting very heavy rainfall across several districts of Assam and Meghalaya.
The warning comes at a time when both Assam and Meghalaya are witnessing heavy rainfall from the last few days, which has resulted in waterlogging, artificial floods, and landslides across the two regions.
The IMD’s Regional Meteorological Centre in Guwahati issued the ‘red’ alert for the next 24 hours with a prediction of “heavy (7-11 cm in 24 hours) to very heavy (11-20 cm in 24 hrs) with extremely heavy rainfall (over 20 cm in 24 hours)” in lower Assam districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, Barpeta, and Bongaigaon .
Meanwhile, the toll in the flash flood in Sikkim mounted to 21 on Friday as Army and NDRF teams worked their way through slushy earth and fast flowing water in the Teesta River basin and downstream north Bengal for the third day in search of those who were swept away and are still missing.
According to Chief Minister P S Tamang, of the 23 army personnel who were missing from Burdang area, the bodies of seven have been recovered from different areas downstream while one was rescued, and the search is on for 15 missing jawans.
A total of 103 people, including the 15 jawans, remained missing after a cloudburst over Lhonak Lake in North Sikkim in the early hours of Wednesday triggered the flash flood.
