Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, April 02 2010:
The ongoing rainfall in the state is three times higher than that of last year's rainfall pattern, according to Meteorological (MET) Office Imphal sources.
When compared with last year's record, the ongoing rainfall rate is much higher than that of last year.
State has a record of around 185.5mm rainfall rate till April 2 against last year's 51.1 mm.
However Kh Meghachandra, officer in charge of the MET office Imphal at Tulihal airport, while talking to this reporter said, the ongoing rainfall rate is not an unusual pattern."We've experienced a similar pattern some years back", the official said.
But the continuous rain and thunderstorm which started from March 29 has disturbed the normal landing of some aircrafts at the Tulihal airport near here.
An Imphal bound Indigo aircraft flew back to Guwahati instead of landing here due to low visibility yesterday.
A similar episode was also reported in the recent past due to bad weather.
According to MET officials, an aircraft needs a clear visibility within a range of not less than 1500 metres.
"But beyond this range, it's rare to see landing of passenger aircrafts here", an official observed.
The MET office does not have the exact wind speed rate that swept across various parts of the state as they have difrerent recording schedules (8am, 11am, 2pm and 4pm followed by 8 pm, 11pm, 2am and 4 am).
Concerned MLAs and politicians also started to visit storm hit villages in their respective assembly constituency today.
On the other hand some villagers are afraid of flash flood if the rain continues to fall at the catchment areas in the coming days.
MLA Prithibiraj of Moirang A/C and wife of Mayang Imphal A/C Kh Ratan have distributed immediate relief materials such as rice and pulses to the storm affected villagers of Phoubakchao village this afternoon while MLA Thangkholun of Chandel A/C inspected some of the rainstorms affected government buildings in Chandel district headquarters.
Reports reaching here said altogether around 100 houses have been destroyed in the nature's fury in Chandel district.
Another 400-500 houses were also reportedly destroyed in various parts of Thoubal district alone while Imphal West and Imphal west district have a damaged recorded of about 50 houses each.However there's no official figure about the entire destruction that took place in the state till the filing of this report.
But it is learnt that the worst affected villages include Phoubakchao in Thoubal and Imphal West adjoining areas, Charangpat and Sora villages again in Thoubal, Lambung in Chandel district,Tuinem and Ukrhul bazar in Ukhrul district.
MPP president visited the damaged houses at Charangpat area under Wangkhem Assembly today.
The Kuki-Chin-Mizo dominated Churachandpur district also recorded a series of storms in various areas in the past three days due to the continuous downpour accompanied by strong winds.
Causalties among the villagers were also reported in most of the areas.