Assam’s weather woes continued on Friday with storms, heavy rain and hail battering the state. At least six persons — three in Tinsukia, one in Dibrugarh and two kids in Dhemaji district — lost their lives.
In Tinsukia, three of a family died and seven others were injured when a storm lashed Namdang tea estate at Margherita. The victims have been identified as Radhika Birsa, 40, Maina Tanti, 16, and Anu Tanti, 17. They died when a tree fell on their house while they were asleep. The injured are undergoing treatment at Margherita civil hospital.
“Their house was completely destroyed by the tree,’’ said Debojit Mahanta, officer-in-charge of Margherita police station.
Many areas are without power because the electricity lines have been snapped. “For some days strong winds have been blowing and our power has been cut off. We are facing lot of problems,’’ said Alok Das, a resident of Margherita. Fallen trees have blocked roads.
(Top) Dimpi Boro cries near her house that was destroyed by a storm at Chaplekuchi in Nalbari on Thursday. (Above) Gauhati University vice-chancellor Mridul Hazarika and other professors hand over a cheque to little Dimpi on Friday
In Dhemaji, Kanaklata Pame, 8, and Ankur Patir, 5, from Pipaguri and Jatiachapori villages respectively, died after being struck by lightning around 2.30pm. They were removing weeds in paddy fields at the time.
In Dibrugarh, one person identified as Narayan Chitua, died when lightning struck his house in the Gojpuria area of Moran town.
Around 70 people were injured in Charaideo district and pandemonium reigned in Sonari last night as people fled their homes after a gale blew away roofs and felled trees.
“Sonari and its surrounding areas were just recovering from the devastating rains and floodwaters when the storm hit last night. In the dark, people ran helter-skelter trying to take shelter from the rain and collapsing houses. In the melee, about 50-60 people were injured,” Shankar Lal Agarwal, a resident of Sonari, told The Telegraph.
In Jorhat’s Teok, the roof of the Tamulsiga Higher Secondary School was blown off. The area was cut-off by fallen trees that blocked Lalit Chandra Rajkhowa Path.
Storms and torrential rain destroyed standing crops in parts of Dhubri district.
The border outposts of the BSF at Pattamari, Takkamari, Sealdah and Gachpara were also affected.
The damage is being assessed, said a BSF official at Panbari camp in Dhubri.
Text by Avik Chakraborty, Bijoy Kumar Sharma, Vinod Singh and Smita Bhattacharyya
