Rain fury in Gujarat, Assam flood situation grim

New Delhi: Torrential rains led to a deluge- like situation in parts of Gujarat and triggered fresh landslides in Himchal Pradesh, even as the flood situation in Assam remained grim with more rains likely to hit the northeast region tomorrow.

Sharp showers pounded Tankara taluka of Gurjarat's Morbi district in a short span of time. The rainwater breached several check dams, leading to heavy water-logging.

Tankara gauged a massive 280 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours. Teams of the disaster management department with the help of National Disaster Response Force personnel rescued around 14 people stranded in floodwaters in the district.

Suigam taluka in Banaskantha, Kodinar taluka in Gir Somnath and Kalyanpur in Devbhoomi Dwarka received 110 mm of rainfall overnight, which led to traffic snarls.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said the state's disaster management authority has been put on alert to tackle any emergency situation.

The low-lying areas in Ahmedabad are waterlogged. The city recorded 31 mm of rainfall. The IMD has warned of "heavy to very heavy" rains in Gujarat in the next three days.

A 17-year-old youth was killed after a cloudburst struck a village in south Kashmir's Kulgam district last night.

Meanwhile, the 300-km-long Jammu-Srinagar national highway, the only all-weather road connecting the Valley to the rest of India, was reopened for vehicular traffic after a day-long closure due to rainfall-induced landslides in Ramban and Udhampur districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

Widespread rains led to fresh landslides in Himachal Pradesh. The Manali-Leh road was blocked near Koksar.

The MeT office has predicted moderate to heavy rains and thundershowers in the mid and lower hills, and snow and rains in the higher reaches up to July 7.

In Assam, floods have affected more than 2.68 lakh people in Barpeta, Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Karimganj, Cachar, Dhemaji, Karbi Anglong and Biswanath districts.

The Assam State Disaster Management Authority's report said 453 villages have been inundated and over 5,272 hectares of crop area damaged by the swirling flood waters.

Karimganj is the worst hit with 1.53 lakh sufferers. 76,000 people have been affected in Lakhimpur. 5,670 people have taken shelter in 269 relief camps set up in four districts.

The southwest monsoon advanced into the remaining parts of Bihar.

Heavy and very heavy showers drenched northern Bihar, while the southern part of the state received light to moderate rainfall in the last 24 hours.

Patna gauged 0.7 mm of precipitation, Gaya 0.6 mm and Purnea and 7.7 mm. Humidity levels soared up to 100 per cent in Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea.

A fresh spell of rains and a cloud cover thereafter kept the heat at bay in the national capital.

Several parts of the city gauged rainfall between 9.8 mm and 15.9 mm. It had a high of 35.1 degrees Celsius and a low of 25.4 degrees Celsius. Light rains and thundershowers are likely tomorrow.

It was another wet day for Punjab and Haryana. Rains over the last two-three days have arrested the rise of the mercury in the region.

The maximum temperature in the two states remained below the normal levels and was recorded in the mid 30s at most of the places.

The weatherman has predicted very heavy rains in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

A downpour is "very likely" in Arunachal Pradesh, Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, west Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Goa, Chhattisgarh and coastal Karnataka.