At least 15 people have died in floods and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya over the past four days, state officials reported Monday.
Sanjay Goyal, commissioner and secretary of Meghalaya’s Revenue and Disaster Management Department, told The Associated Press, “The situation is improving as the weather has cleared, but we’ve retrieved all bodies.” He added that approximately 17,000 people from 165 villages have been evacuated to relief camps.
Among the casualties were seven members of a single family buried alive in the South Garo Hills district. Two others died when their vehicle was swept away by floodwaters, and another man was killed by a falling tree.
The India Meteorological Department forecasts “isolated heavy rainfall” to continue in parts of Meghalaya this week, classifying rainfall between 64.5 mm (3 inches) and 115.5 mm (5 inches) as “heavy.”
“These ongoing rains pose significant challenges for rescue and relief efforts,” said Dr. Ritesh Kumar, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology. “The saturated soil increases the risk of further landslides.”
The disaster has also affected neighboring Bangladesh, where the death toll from flooding in northern regions rose to six on Sunday. However, Torofdar Mahmudur Rahman, district administrator of hard-hit Sherpur, reported that floodwaters are slowly receding. “People are already starting to leave the shelters and return to their homes,” he said.
This latest catastrophe follows August flooding in eastern Bangladesh that killed over 70 people and caused an estimated $1.2 billion in damage, according to the Centre for Policy Dialogue think tank.
REUTERS
