600 families affected as Mizoram floods rage

At least 600 families have been forced to move to safer places in south Mizoram's Lunglei district as the raging waters of Khawthlangtuipui river, also known as the Karnaphuli, and its tributaries submerged nearly 400 houses, officials said Saturday.

The entire Serhuan village (122 houses) and Tiperaghat (120) were submerged as the rain fury continued unabated, the officials said, adding at least 150 houses were submerged in Tlabung town of the district.

While a total of eight villages were affected by the floods, no information could be obtained from those along the Bangladesh border as communication lines have been badly affected, an official said.

 

Lalhriatpuia, a resident of Tlabung, claimed that the town and the villages nearby have no power supply for the last three days as transmission lines were snapped due to landslides.

Lunglei and the other southern districts of Lawngtlai and Saiha remained cut off from the rest of the country due to roadblocks as incessant heavy rains triggered landslides, an official of the state's Public Works Department said.

He said authorities are busy making the roads motorable, but while they clear one block here another appears somewhere else.

Meanwhile, the body of a man who drowned in river Tlawng on Thursday was yet to be traced, the official said. Voluntary divers, adventure club members and State Disaster Response Force personnel continued their search, he said.

On Friday, officials had said that two men drowned and 390 houses submerged in floods triggered by incessant rain across Mizoram.

A 53-year-old man drowned in the Tlawng river near Aizawl when a bamboo raft he was rowing with two friends capsized on Thursday, while his friends swam to safety.

In another incident, a man collecting crabs in the jungle near south Mizoram's Lunglei town also drowned on Thursday. His body was recovered on Friday.

Disaster management and rehabilitation officials had said landslides made many places inaccessible. A total of 119 families were rescued from one of the affected villages.