• Assam: Over 4,500 Houses Damaged as Hailstorm lashes parts of state, CM takes account

    Regional
    Assam: Over 4,500 Houses Damaged as Hailstorm lashes parts of state, CM takes account
    An official with the Dibrugarh district administration said that upper Assam was affected by the heavy hailstorm late on Monday and early on Tuesday.

    Digital Desk: A significant hailstorm that raced over several areas of upper Assam on Tuesday caused damage to about 4,500 dwellings in four districts, according to officials, as reported by news agency PTI. 

    According to a report from the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), 4,483 dwellings across 132 villages in the Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Sivasagar, and Tinsukia districts were damaged. An official with the Dibrugarh district administration said that upper Assam was affected by the heavy hailstorm late on Monday and early on Tuesday.

    Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, responded and said, "I have instructed officials to assess the damages in detail. The government is offering all forms of assistance to individuals who are impacted."

    According to the ASDMA report, around 18,000 people have been affected, and the families affected by the hailstorm received canvas sheets.

    Two buildings were completely demolished, and 4,481 homes suffered partial damage, according to the ASDMA assessment. 3,009 dwellings were damaged in Charaideo, 1,232 in Dibrugarh, 220 in Sivasagar, and 22 in Tinsukia, according to the report.

    The hailstorm, which is unusual for this section of the state in the winter, has also reportedly damaged a number of schools and the crops on vast tracts of agricultural land, according to officials.

    A "Yellow Alert" for the whole northeast was issued by the Guwahati Regional Meteorological Centre in the interim, foreseeing sporadic thunderstorms, lightning, and hail across the seven states.

    The RMC said in a bulletin that isolated areas in Arunachal Pradesh's upper reaches might also get light snow in the coming day or two.

    It was predicted that "light to moderate rain is highly possible in a few areas" in the remaining Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura.

    The bulletin did point out that there had been little change in overnight temperatures in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura in the last 24 hours.