A sudden flash flood in the Nagrakata block of Jalpaiguri district caused by a swollen stream on Friday morning inundated around 60 houses.
The stream has also cut off the sole road connecting a number of neighbouring villages, leaving around 5,000 people isolated from the block headquarters.
Officials of the block administration and representatives of panchayats have visited the areas and distributed relief among the affected families.
Sources said that early on Friday it started raining in Nagrakata and its surrounding areas and also in the neighbouring Bhutan hills. Around 7am the Sukhani, a stream flowing through the block started swelling.
“Within a couple of hours, the stream began flowing over a bridge that connects the banks in the Manmohandhura area. A Sishu Siksha Kendra (SSK) and an anganwadi centre on the banks got flooded,” said Samir Minz, a local resident.
Earlier, the stream had damaged the bridge, after which the block authorities had built a diversion so that people residing on the other side of the bank can use the route to reach the block headquarters.
“The stream, however, completely damaged the diversion (on Friday). The water was flowing in such a force that none of the residents of Manmohandhura and its adjoining areas could cross the stream. They have got cut off from the block,” said Feroze Nur Patowari, the chief of the Nagrakata panchayat samiti.
The stream also burst its banks and flooded the Bijaynagar area of Nagrakata. Within minutes, houses and hutments were filled with knee-deep to waist-deep water.
The residents shifted to higher places with their belongings. A team from the block soon reached there and provided them food and other relief materials.
Residents of Manmohandhura and neighbouring villages reiterated their demand for a new bridge over Sukhani.
“For the past few years, we have been facing this problem during the monsoon. The district administration should take the task to build a new bridge,” said a resident.
Patowari, who heads the block level rural body, said they had already sent a proposal for a bridge. “We are waiting for approval so that work can be initiated,” he said.
Sources in the Indian Meteorological Department said the southwest monsoon was active in sub-Himalayan Bengal. “There is a forecast of rainfall across the region during the next few days,” said a weather expert.