At around 7 pm on 21 July, floodwaters entered Rohini Duwara’s home in Lakwa Abhayapuri village in Assam’s Charaideo district.
His family tried to move towards higher ground as the powerful current rose around them.
Rohini’s wife, Tutumoni Duwara, and their daughter, Bidisha, were swept away first. His sons, Bidyut and Biplab, entered the water in an attempt to save them, but the current carried them away too.
In a matter of minutes, Rohini was separated from his wife and three children.
The bodies of Bidisha, Bidyut and Biplab were later recovered, while the search for Tutumoni continued at the time of the latest available report.
Across Assam, thousands of families are living through their own hours of fear. Homes have disappeared under floodwater, livelihoods have been washed away, and people have waited for rescue on rooftops, embankments and patches of higher ground.
The floods have left behind staggering numbers. Behind each one is a family wondering where it will sleep, how it will protect its children and what will remain when the water recedes.
Across several villages, people have abandoned their homes after water entered every room. Photograph: (Oxomiya Jiyori)
For many, the first step towards surviving the coming days begins with finding a roof.
The Better India has joined hands with DonateKart to support the Assam-based Association of Social and Human Activists, or ASHA, in procuring emergency tents for displaced families.
Your contribution can give a family a dry place to sleep, protect its food and medicines, and stay together while floodwaters continue to surround their home.
When rivers spread through villages, farms and homes
Weeks of heavy rain across Assam and the hills upstream have pushed the Brahmaputra and its tributaries far beyond their usual paths.
The Dikhow, Disang and Janji have spilt into villages, tea estates and farmland across Upper Assam. In many places, residents say they have never seen water spread this far.
Satellite images show the scale of the flooding.
Near Jorhat, water from the Brahmaputra stretched across nearly 21 kilometres, about three times its earlier visible spread. That expanse includes flooded fields, sandbars and nearby settlements, showing how far the river has entered people’s everyday lives.
By 24 July, more than 7.21 lakh people across 11 districts and nearly 900 villages had been affected, according to Assam’s Disaster Reporting and Information Management System.
At least 47 people had died, while several others remained missing. More than 25,000 hectares of farmland lay underwater, over 24,000 people were living in relief camps, and nearly 1.39 lakh animals had been affected.
Assam Drowns in Deadly Floods.
41 dead, over 7 lakh people affected as floods swallow 11 districts. Rivers still rising.
Assam is hurting. Homes are gone, lives have been changed forever and even innocent animals have been lost.
Please keep every affected family in your… pic.twitter.com/yAt3PCkyvb
— زماں (@Delhiite_) July 24, 2026
Sivasagar was the worst-affected district, with approximately 3.92 lakh people impacted. Charaideo followed with 1.10 lakh people affected, while nearly 97,700 people were impacted in Jorhat.
The exceptional rainfall across Upper Assam has added enormous volumes of water to rivers already struggling to contain it.
India Meteorological Department data showed that Charaideo received around 170 mm of rain during the period analysed, which was 436% above normal. Golaghat recorded 147.9 mm, Jorhat 105.2 mm and Sivasagar 93.2 mm.
For the families living through the flood, these figures describe only a fraction of what has been lost.
‘People need shelter and drinking water too’
Rescue teams are still working across flood-hit districts to reach families cut off by the water.
The National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Army, Border Security Force, local police and other agencies have been evacuating stranded people. Helicopters are also carrying food packets to villages that can no longer be reached by road.
ASHA is supporting these relief efforts on the ground in partnership with DonateKart.
Rajib Kalita, Managing Director of ASHA, tells The Better India that calls for help continue to come in from communities across the state.
“People are calling the SDRF and NDRF continuously, asking to be rescued. Every agency is trying its best, but the sheer volume of water has made rescue operations extremely difficult,” he says.
Even when food reaches families, another problem begins. They often have nowhere dry to keep it.
Weeks of heavy rain across Assam and the hills upstream have pushed the Brahmaputra and its tributaries far beyond their usual paths. Photograph: (PTI)
“Food packets are dropped from helicopters, but many become wet after falling into floodwaters. Even when food reaches families, they do not have a dry place to keep it or eat it,” Kalita explains.
Relief workers are now hearing the same request again and again.
“People keep telling us, ‘Do not think only about food. What we need right now is drinking water and shelter too,’” he shares.
Families need a protected place where they can eat, sleep and keep food, medicines and clothes dry. While rescue work continues, a temporary tent can give them that immediate sense of safety.
How your contribution will help
Relief workers across flood-hit Assam say shelter has become one of the most urgent needs. To help families find a safe place to stay, The Better India is working with DonateKart to support ASHA’s relief efforts.
With your help, we aim to raise Rs 2 lakh to procure emergency tents for families who have been forced to leave their homes behind.
ASHA and its partner organisations will distribute these shelters across affected villages, reaching families who are still waiting for a dry and secure place to rest.
Many escaped with only a few belongings. Some remain stranded on tin rooftops or small patches of higher ground, watching the water close in around their homes.
The floods have also severely affected livestock, with 1,38,965 animals impacted and 540 animals, including 500 poultry birds, reported washed away. Photograph: (PTI)
Food may reach them through rescue teams, but without shelter, even that becomes difficult to manage. Families have nowhere dry to store supplies, prepare a meal or put their children to sleep safely.
Every contribution will help procure a temporary shelter that can give a family:
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A dry place where children and elderly people can sleep
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Protection from rain, mosquitoes and contaminated floodwater
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A secure space to store drinking water, food, clothes and medicines
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Temporary accommodation while the family waits for the water to recede or prepares to rebuild
Your donation will directly support the procurement of emergency tents for flood-affected families in Assam.
When a tent becomes the safest place a family has
Floodwater enters a home and changes every part of daily life.
Beds become unusable. Clothes, documents and medicines are soaked or lost. Food cannot be kept dry. The rooms where families once cooked, ate and slept together become impossible to live in.
Across several villages, people have left their homes after water entered every room. In some places, even pucca (permanent) houses have offered little protection, leaving families stranded on rooftops as they wait for rescue boats.
“Even people with pucca houses are sitting on their roofs because everything below is underwater,” says Kalita.
For families without shelter, the risks continue even after they reach higher ground. They remain exposed to rain, mosquitoes, contaminated water and illness.
Children have nowhere dry to sleep. People who need regular medication have no safe place to store it. Families struggle to protect food packets, clothes and the few belongings they managed to carry.
This is why relief workers say tents are now among the most urgent needs.
“If families have a tent, they at least have a place where children can sleep, where food can remain dry and where they can live with some dignity until the water recedes,” Kalita explains.
For a family waiting to understand whether its home can be entered, repaired or rebuilt, a tent can offer safety, privacy and a dry place to stay through the days ahead.
Rescue is only the beginning
Floodwaters may begin to recede, but many families will remain displaced for weeks.
In Assam’s low-lying areas, water often stays long after the first surge. Homes may be unsafe to return to, fields may remain buried under mud and drinking-water sources may become contaminated.
The India Meteorological Department has also forecast more rain, thunderstorms and lightning across Assam through 29 July. With the ground already saturated, another spell of rain could push water levels up again.
Very heartbreaking scene from #AssamFloods, almost 500 cows swept away from a single village in Sivsagar district. The song lyrics in the background of late Zubeen da aptly describes the scene 👇
“By the string of fate… the floods have returned,
Sweeping away the entire… pic.twitter.com/1Z4AUrTEI5
— Oxomiya Jiyori 🇮🇳 (@SouleFacts) July 24, 2026
For families who have already fled once, that may mean packing up whatever little they have and moving all over again.
Kalita says these are often the weeks when public attention starts to fade, even though families still need shelter, clean water and basic supplies.
“The water will not disappear tomorrow. Even after 10 days, many families will still be displaced. By then, media attention may reduce, but their problems will not,” he says.
A rescue boat may carry a family out of the flood, but many still end up living beside roads, on embankments or in crowded relief camps, unsure of when they can return home.
During these uncertain days, a temporary shelter can give them a dry and protected place to stay.
A safe roof for the days ahead
For Rohini Duwara, the evening of 21 July changed everything.
His family’s story puts a human face to Assam’s flood maps and rainfall figures. It shows how a familiar evening at home can turn, within minutes, into a loss that shapes every day that follows.
Across the state, thousands of other families escaped with only the clothes they were wearing. Some are still waiting for rescue boats. Others have reached higher ground, but have nowhere safe or dry to stay.
“The government has mobilised every possible agency, and many people are trying to help,” Kalita says. “But this is a disaster of enormous scale. Recovery will take time.”
Until families can return home, an emergency tent can give them the protection they urgently need.
It can give a child a dry place to sleep, help parents keep food and medicines safe, and allow families to stay together as they face the days ahead.
With your support, the fundraiser aims to raise Rs 2 lakh to procure emergency tents for families affected by the Assam floods.
Your contribution can help give a displaced family a safe roof and a place to begin recovering while the waters recede.
