Indian paramilitary rescue teams rushed Saturday to an island in one of Asia's largest rivers, where nearly 100,000 people took refuge after heavy monsoon rains flooded their homes, said a local administrator. Nearly 300,000 people in remote northeastern Assam state have seen their homes flooded in three days of nonstop monsoon rain, said state Revenue Minister Bhumidhar Barman. Rescue teams carried food packages containing rice and lentils to the people marooned on flood-prone Majuli island on the Brahmaputra River, said district magistrate L.S. Changsan. No deaths have been reported, Changsan told The Associated Press. The local meteorological department predicted moderate to heavy rainfall Saturday. The monsoon rains usually hit India from June to September, but the situation turned grim Thursday after the surging Brahmaputra breached a 328-foot (100-meter) stretch of a newly built embankment in Lakhimpur district in Assam state. At least 300 villages in the district, about 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of the state capital Gauhati, have been flooded after the breach. Disaster response teams equipped with boats have reached the flood-affected areas, Barman said. Monsoon floods hit Assam, a state of 26 million people, almost every year, with heavy rains swelling the Brahmaputra and its innumerable tributaries that crisscross the state. Last year, millions of people were forced to temporarily abandon their homes.
