A depression over the Bay of Bengal triggered heavy downpour across coastal Bengal since early Monday, including East and West Midnapore districts, and inundated new areas in a region already battling damage from floods last week.

East Midnapore saw rain throughout Monday, which caused rivers Keleghai and Kansabati to overflow. Keleghai floods proceeded as far as 25km inland after breaching dykes, bringing the number of displaced people in the district to 6.87 lakh in the last two weeks.

“East Midnapore received much less rain on Monday than Calcutta, but enough to exacerbate damages from previous week,” said district disaster management official Mrityunjay Haldar. “Patashpur, Bhagabanpur and Bhupatinagar are the worst hit.”

On Monday, many roads in East Midnapore were lined with homeless families seeking shelter under tarpaulins. Subhas Paria, 65, a farmer from Nilkanthapur village, said he lost all his belongings on Monday. “We had thought the worst was behind us (last week’s floods),” he said.

On Monday evening, the Kansabati seemed to have abated somewhat, but the Keleghai kept swelling.

District officials on Monday were operating 250 relief and shelter camps.

In West Midnapore, two weather-related fatalities were reported on Monday. The toll in both districts in over two weeks is now 14.

“In West Midnapore, 6.27 lakh persons became homeless since last Monday (one week),” said disaster management official Sandip Biswas.