Monsoon strong, flash flood alert for next 24 hrs sounded across country

NEW DELHI: The India Meteorological Department on Friday issued an alert on flash floods in next 24 hours due to prevailing strong monsoon systems as it predicted widespread intense rains in northwest and east India, northeast region, Western Ghats and Gujarat.

In addition, IMD predicted isolated extremely heavy rainfall over northwest regions, east and northeast regions in the next 4-5 days. It has issued a red alert over Uttarakhand, north-eastern states for the next few days.

It has issued a red alert over Uttarakhand, North-eastern states for the next few days. The IMD warned of localised floods in river catchment areas and landslides, and advised people to stay away from water bodies. In its advisory, the met department pointed out moderate to high flash flood risk (FFR) in the eastern region, which include Sikkim, and Himalayan West Bengal, and the northern region, including Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

“Low to medium flash flood risk is likely over a few watersheds and neighbourhoods of east Rajasthan and eastern parts of west Rajasthan, southern region Western Ghats and western region Konkan and Gujarat,” the IMD said in its bulletin.

“Moderate to high flash flood risk is also likely over a few watersheds and neighbourhoods of sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim during next 24 hours,” the bulletin said.

“The moderate FFR risk is likely to spill over to a few watersheds and neighbourhoods of Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh met sub-divisions during next 24 hours,” it said, adding that fast water flow on the surface may cause inundation.