More than three million people have been affected by the annual monsoon deluge as torrential rains pummel eastern India, officials said Wednesday, with villagers fleeing to higher ground and wildlife sanctuaries underwater.

Monsoons are crucial to replenishing water supplies after the scorching summer season but also cause widespread death and destruction across South Asia each year.

The storms have been worsened by climate change, experts say.

India's poorest state Bihar and wildlife-rich Assam have been hit by incessant rains for a week, with swollen rivers bursting their banks and stranding thousands of people in villages.

In Assam, water levels for the Brahmaputra — a mighty transborder Himalayan river system — have risen above their "danger levels", a water resource department official told AFP.

Villager Amshar Ali said locals were struggling with basic needs.

"We are in great suffering. It is difficult to get food, drinking water and other essential items," Ali told AFP.

"Many villagers do not have their own boats, so people are suffering."

Farmer Liyakat Ali said he had to move his livestock to a friend's property after his house was submerged.

"The floodwaters have risen to above four to five feet (1.2-1.5 metres) in the last two days," he told AFP.

Up to 80 percent of the Kaziranga National Park and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary — both along the Brahmaputra and home to rare one-horned rhinoceroses — were underwater, officials said.

"All the wild animals are taking shelter on higher lands in the sanctuary," Pobitora ranger Nayanjyoti Das told AFP.

Assam officials said at least 11 animals — including two swamp deer, eight hog deer and one capped langur — have been killed in the floods.

"We have been surviving on dry food grains as our kitchen is in chest-deep water," villager Prem Yadav told AFP from his rooftop, where he and his family have been sleeping since Saturday in Bihar's Gopalganj district.

The homes of villagers in other low-lying areas were also inundated with floodwaters, forcing them to take shelter at nearby embankments and roads.

More than 3.2 million people in over 2,200 villages in 17 districts in Bihar have been impacted by the rising waters since last week, authorities said.

Some 215,000 people were evacuated from their homes.

Since the start of the monsoon season in June, some 43 people have died in Bihar, according to official data.

The India Meteorological Department said the heavy downpours could continue in the two states until Thursday.

Flooding follows torrential rain in eastern Spain
Barcelona (AFP) Sept 1, 2021 –

Hours of heavy rains triggered flooding in eastern Spain on Wednesday with some coastal areas overwhelmed by flash floods that washed away cars and trees.

One of the worst-hit areas was Alcanar, a town 200 kilometres (160 miles) south of Barcelona, where huge torrents of fast-moving water surged through the streets, sweeping away everything in its path.

Two major roads in the area were cut off and the local train service partially suspended, with local officials urging residents to stay at home.

Spain's AEMET weather service has warned of a "serious risk" of flooding in central and northern parts of the country, as well as along its Mediterranean coastline, with the heavy rains expected to persist into Thursday.

Before dawn, heavy rain fell in the Madrid area and the northern Navarra region.

Torrential rains are becoming ever more frequent in Spain, with flooding causing seven deaths in the southeast in September 2019, while another storm left 13 dead in the Balearic island of Mallorca a year earlier.

Experts say global warming has increased the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere, making episodes of intense rainful more likely to happen, raising the risk of flooding.

Biden to visit hurricane damage in New Orleans
Washington (AFP) Sept 1, 2021 –

President Joe Biden will visit hurricane damage in the southern state of Louisiana on Friday, the White House said.

"The president will travel to New Orleans, Louisiana to survey storm damage from Hurricane Ida and meet with state and local leaders from impacted communities," the administration announced Wednesday.

This will be Biden's first trip out of the Washington area since Afghanistan plunged into crisis two weeks ago with a Taliban victory over the US-supported Afghan government and a hectic US evacuation.

Louisiana and Mississippi took the brunt of Hurricane Ida, which has killed four people. New Orleans was especially hard-hit.

However, the region fared far better than during Hurricane Katrina, which struck Louisiana exactly 16 years ago and killed more than 1,800 people.