DANG, July 20: Over 3,000 houses in three village development committees (VDC) of Deukhuri, Dang have been inundated following three days of persistent rainfall.
Over 2,000 houses in Sishaniya 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, and over 1,000 in Lalmatiya 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9, and Sonpur 1, 2, 3 and 4 have been inundated following the biggest floods in the district in over 50 years. [break]
Chief of Dang Police Ganesh Bahadur Air said the number of displaced families have yet to be ascertained with the rivers swelling further due to continuous rain. "Police personnel are collecting details of the destruction. The complete picture will arrive a few days later," Air said.
The houses in three VDCs have been inundated as water from Rapti river and local streams entered the settlements in the night. "The floods have wreaked havoc in three VDCs," President of Nepal Red Cross Society, Lalmatiya Ganga Ram Bhattarai said. "Some have had their houses swept away while others their cattle. We are collecting details in coordination with the VDCs and police," Bhattarai added.
He said food grains, clothes and cooking utensils from most of the thatched houses in the villages have been swept away with Dodhai of Sonpur and Kalapani of Sishaniya the hardest hit. "Murky water entered our house suddenly in the night. We survived by climbing to the roof top," Dilli Raj Chaudhary of Dodhai said. "Three oxen, sheep and stored paddy and wheat were all swept away," he added.
The displaced families of Dodhai are taking shelter in local schools with a few living under the open sky. Twenty-five thatched huts in Kalapani have been destroyed by flood in Dolai river. The Armed Police Force (APF) rescued 11 persons including a woman and her four-month son in Kalapani.
The news of flooding in the three VDCs spread in the district in the midnight. Chief District Officer (CDO) Madhusudan Burlakoti, Superintendent of Police (SP) Air and others visited the affected area early in the morning.