Guwahati:
Tuesday, under the influence of Cyclone Remal, at least 36 persons were murdered in four northeastern states due to torrential rainfall and landslides. Officials said that regular life came to a grinding halt in all eight states of the region due to impacted road and rail lines.
The death toll in Mizoram was 27, with 21 victims lost in a quarry collapse in the Aizawl area; Nagaland had four, Assam had three, and Meghalaya had two.
Gulps of rain and strong winds caused landslides, snapped trees and power lines, and cut out electricity and the internet.
Several trains had to be postponed or partially canceled due to waterlogging between the New Haflong-Jatinga Lampur segment and Ditokcherra yard on the Northeast Frontier Railway’s Lumding division.
Aizawl district in Mizoram was the site of numerous landslides that killed at least 27 people, including 21 in a stone quarry that fell, while 10 more went missing.
Authorities in charge of disaster relief and law enforcement have reported that twenty-one dead have been pulled from the quarry site between Melthum and Hlimen in the Aizawl, with many more lying buried beneath the rubble from the morning’s collapse. Landslides in the districts of Salem, Aibawk, Lungsei, Kelsih, and Falkawn killed six people and left many more missing.
In Nagaland, about 40 homes were damaged and at least four people lost their lives in separate instances.
Two further cases of drowning were recorded from Doyang Dam in the Wokha district, and a little kid drowned near Laruri village under the Meluri subdivision of Phek district, according to an official. In Phek, a wall gave down, crushing an old man to death.
There were three fatalities and seventeen injuries in the districts of Kamrup, Kamrup (Metro), and Morigaon in Assam. A school bus was struck by a branch in Dhekiajuli, Sonitpur district, injuring twelve pupils, according to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA). Separate incidents in Morigaon injured five more.
Following the tragic loss of life, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma conveyed his deepest condolences.
Storms that were rather strong hit several districts in ASDMA region, including Bongaigaon, Chirang, Darrang, Dhubri, Hojai, Kamrup, Kamrup Metro, Karbi Anglong, Kokrajhar, Morigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur, South Salmara, and West Karbi Anglong.
Heavy rains pounded the Indian state of Meghalaya on Tuesday, killing two and injuring more than a hundred, according to officials. According to officials, one person died in the East Jaintia Hills district, and another person died in a vehicle accident in the East Khasi Hills district. Numerous homes in seventeen communities were ruined by the unrelenting rain. Flash floods occurred in the Langkyrding, Pynthorbah, Polo, Sawfurlong, and Demseiniong regions, while landslides were recorded on the Shillong-Mawlai Bypass and Bivar Road in Oakland.
The majority of Tripura was battered by torrential rain and strong winds of 50 to 60 km/h over the previous 24 hours, causing 470 homes to be damaged and 750 people to seek refuge in 15 relief shelters spread across various districts.
During a media briefing in Agartala, Sushant Chowdhury, the state’s minister of food and civil supplies, claimed that the state received an average of 215.5 mm of rainfall in the preceding 24 hours, with the maximum reported in Unakoti district at 252.4 mm.
Arunachal Pradesh is expected to see unusually heavy rains, prompting the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to issue a high alert. Avoid vulnerable and secluded areas, Chief Minister Pema Khandu urged the people to take all necessary precautions.
Rescue operations on to find missing victims:
In the Aizawl district on May 28, 2024, rescue operations are now ongoing following the collapse of a stone quarry caused by heavy rains from Cyclone Remal. I am a student at PTI.
Rescue attempts to find missing persons persisted on May 29, a day after 25 dead were found from rubble caused by huge landslides triggered by persistent rain across Mizoram, according to an official report.
Rescue activities commenced early morning at various sites in an effort to locate the missing persons, as reported in the morning bulletin of the Mizoram State Disaster Management Authority (MSDMA). One such area was an abandoned stone quarry, where multiple buildings had collapsed on Tuesday morning.
Numerous individuals were reported missing as a result of landslides; the area around the state capital was particularly hard hit and isolated from the rest of the nation for a number of hours.
Near the southern limits of Aizawl town, between Melthum and Hlimen, a landslide destroyed stone quarry cottages, killing at least 14 people (including two minors) and leaving eight others missing.
There are ongoing search and rescue efforts. According to MSDMA’s report, the site has been manned by 25 members of the 3rd MAP, 22 members of the 1st MAP, and 10 members of the 5th IR battalion.
Several homes and working camps reportedly collapsed under the weight of the avalanche, burying 22 individuals. A girl and a child, both aged six, and four years old, were among the victims.
The weather has been pleasant thus far, with no rain since morning. Despite the cloudiness, an official from the MSDMA told PTI that they hoped operations could go unimpeded by nature.
This past Tuesday, Deputy Commissioner Nazuk Kumar of Aizawl stated that search activities will not end until the entire site has been decontaminated.
Authorities maintained their search and rescue operations at Hlimen in the Aizawl district, where five bodies were found and four more remain missing, according to the morning bulletin.
Three people went missing after a building in Aizawl’s Salem Veng collapsed in a landslide; later on Tuesday, their remains were found.
In the Aizawl area, landslides buried buildings in Falkawn, Lungsei, and Kelsih, killing one person each.
A massive landslide in Chawnpui in Aizawl district took away eight members of a family who were inside a house, according to the MSDMA.
On Tuesday, landslides on National Highway-6 near Hunthar and NH-54 at Bungbangla isolated the state capital from the rest of the country for the whole day. The officials announced that the road blockades were removed in the evening and that traffic mobility had been resumed.
Some cemeteries in Aizawl town, including Republic Veng, Kanan Veng, and Kulikawn, were also affected by landslides, which swept away more than 200 tombs.
Light to moderate rain is expected across most of Mizoram on Wednesday, according to the regional center of the India Meteorological Department in Guwahati. However, isolated locations in the hill state are likely to experience thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds of up to 30-40 kmph.
In light of the severe weather warning issued by the IMD about Cyclone Remal, the Mizoram Government has directed that all offices and PSU units be closed on Wednesday. The only exceptions to this rule are departments concerned with disaster management and critical services.
In light of the weather warning, Commissioner and Secretary K. Lalthawmmawia of the General Administration Department also instructed private sector firms to implement a “work from home” policy to the extent feasible in the order.
The relatives of the victims of the stone quarry collapse and other rain-related disasters in Mizoram would receive ₹4 lakh as an ex-gratia, according to Chief Minister Lalduhoma.
In response to rain-related calamities caused by Cyclone Remal, he said that the government has set aside ₹15 crore to address the issue.
Cycle ‘Remal’ struck a path of devastation across Mizoram, destroying over 150 buildings, uprooting dozens of trees and electric poles, blocking many highways, and submerging over 50 housing units.