TURA: Incessant rains that lashed Garo Hills for close to 12 long hours, beginning late Wednesday night, led to landslides disrupting road communication, damage to peoples’ property and inundation of low lying areas by the three major rivers of the region.
While no loss of life has so far been reported from any part of the region, the damage was most felt in the urban areas, particularly Tura where the storm left in its wake landslides and mudslides in congested areas of the town.
“Heavy rains have caused landslides in various places across the district. We have activated the Disaster Response teams and PWD (Roads) is already clearing roads,” said West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh.
With the threat of further landslides occurring in the area of Hawakhana locality, below Tura Government College, and Teteng A’ja citizens from the area have been advised to remain alert.
In the teteng A’aja and Hawakahana localities, tonnes of loose earth accompanied by trees and bamboo grooves have given way to the rains sliding down and causing damage to houses, vehicles and other property.
A landslide on the main highway at Spring Hills, on the entry to Tura, caused a temporary disruption to traffic flow in the morning.
The storm also led the three main rivers of Garo Hills, Simsang in East and South Garo Hills, Jinjiram in the plain belt and Ganol in West Garo Hills to flow above the danger mark inundating large swathes of low lying areas including standing paddy crops in the Damalgre, Mukdangra and Garobadha region.
This is the second major storm to hit the region in less than two weeks. On September 5th a similar storm during the day caused several land slips and damage to roads in Tura and beyond.