Muzaffarpur, June 28: Thirty villages under Aurai, Gaighat and Katra blocks in the district have been hit by flash floods following incessant rainfall in the past 24 hours.

The rain started in the district yesterday. A day after, several areas along Bagmati river were facing flood threat.

Nearly 70 houses in the low-lying areas of Jokhi village under Aurai block have been completely submerged.

People residing in several low-lying areas are scared because of the constant rise in the water-level. The construction work to strengthen the embankment on Bagmati river between Sundarkholi and Basuva has caved in, disrupting the work. This has created further panic among the people in the adjoining areas.

People of Jivajor, Madhuban, Pratap, Maheshwara, Mahuwara, Chainpur, Patori, and Jokhi villages were frantically looking to move to highlands.

Villagers are using boats to travel from one place to another. Several families from Babhangama village have taken refuge on top of the embankment, as their houses have been submerged. Circle officer of Aurai block Baikunth Shukla told The Telegraph: “After heavy rain since yesterday, there has been a surge in the river along the countryside areas. The district administration has provided 10 country boats to move the people to uplands.” According to Central Water Commission, the water-level of Bagmati river is rising at Benibad in Muzaffarpur, Dheng in Sitamarhi and Hayaghat in Darbhanga.

An erosion was reported at the Bagmati embankment along Kalyani village this morning, which the water resources department officials repaired in the afternoon.

District magistrate Santosh Kumar Mall said: “National Disaster Response Force trained youths from the affected villages since March. They were taught to use bamboo sticks, banana leaves and plastic polythene as boats and help people move to highlands.”

Grave concern

Principal secretary of water resources department Afzal Amanullah expressed grave concern over the slow pace of work at the pilot channels and anti-erosion work. He said action would be taken against the errant agency.

Today, he visited Semaria embankment, 36km from Gopalganj district headquarters, to take stock of the flood preventive measures.