How a 97-year-old escaped deadly Indian floods on a banana raft
A 97-year-old's dramatic rescue captures how Assam's floods are reaching places once thought safe.
On the night of July 19, Bornali Baruah, along with her husband and aged mother, attempted to escape the surging floodwaters in Assam, India. With no boat or rescue team in sight, they fashioned a makeshift raft from banana trunks and carried their elderly mother to safety. Baruah, 40, recounted that the water inside their home eventually rose to around five feet, inundating her house completely.
The recent floods in Assam have claimed 100 lives and affected nearly 1.2 million people across 25 districts, with 52 relief camps set up. Baruah, a former journalist turned livestock farmer, lost most of her animals, property, and livelihood due to the flooding. She recalled that this was the first major flood her area had experienced in her lifetime, and expressed concern over the increasing frequency and severity of such floods.
Written by urgent.news from BBC World's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
