GUWAHATI, India (AP) — The flood crisis in India’s northeastern Assam state remained critical on Monday, with the death toll reaching 100 after two more people died overnight, officials said.
Several rivers remain above danger levels, raising the risk of fresh flooding in vulnerable areas, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority said. Days of heavy monsoon rain has caused rivers, including the Brahmaputra, to overflow that inundated communities while disrupting livelihoods and damaging infrastructure.
The river, one of Asia’s largest that originates in China’s Tibet region and flows about 900 kilometers (560 miles) through Assam, flooded villages, swept away homes and forced nearly 300,000 people into government-run relief camps, officials said.
The floods that began last month displaced more than 700,000 people and submerged vast stretches of farmland and damaged roads and other local infrastructure. Although many residents have begun returning to their homes as floodwaters recede, at least 49,000 flood-affected residents remain housed in 125 relief camps and relief distribution centers, officials said.
Authorities remained engaged in relief and monitoring efforts as they assessed the extent of the damage and the needs of affected populations.
The floods also devastated livestock, with large numbers of cattle lost, dealing a blow to rural communities and raising concerns about disease outbreaks. As the waters receded in some areas, many families returned to homes buried under thick layers of silt, adding to the challenges of recovery.
"We have directed officials to complete damage assessment as soon as possible so the government could provide financial assistance for their rehabilitation,” Assam Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Pijush Hazarika said after a review meeting. He said some 500,000 affected people were already paid interim monetary compensation.
The annual monsoon season frequently triggers flooding in Assam, where swollen rivers inundate large areas and displace thousands of residents each year.
Experts say human-caused climate change is intensifying South Asia’s monsoons, which traditionally run from June to September and again from October to December. The rains, once predictable, now arrive in erratic bursts that dump extreme amounts of water in short periods, followed by dry spells.
A cyclist waits to cross a street in the rain in Chennai, India, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
WENDOVER, Utah (AP) — The first — and only — person to break the sound barrier in a car hits the track in Utah this week with new wheels and his eye on another record.
Twenty years ago, British driver Andy Green set the land speed record for a diesel-powered car, reaching 350.092 mph (563.4 kph) at Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats. Green will return to the lunarlike landscape Tuesday and try to beat that mark, this time with a hydrogen-powered car.
The retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot aims not only to win another accolade but to showcase the power of hydrogen as a clean-energy alternative. It's the “fuel of the future,” Green told The Associated Press in a July interview.
Green will be driving the 32-foot (9.75-meter) JCB Hydromax, the brainchild of British construction equipment manufacturer JCB. The car is bright yellow, long and slim, resembling a pencil. It's powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, which were adapted from engines used in the company’s construction machinery. They mix pressurized hydrogen gas with air and ignite it to create bursts of power.
In targeting the diesel-powered record, Green also hopes to easily clear the world land speed records for hydrogen internal combustion engines (185.5 mph/298.5 kph) and electric vehicles (341.3 mph/549.2 kph).
Green hit a new top speed of 368.347 mph (592.797 kph) in practice last week, but to officially earn the hydrogen record, he’ll have to do it Tuesday in front of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports.
“What the peak speed is, I can’t say. We just don’t know,” he said. “Part of the adventure here is we’re going to find out.”
One thing Tuesday’s attempt will assuredly not do is approach the supersonic speeds Green reached with jet power three decades ago.
Green had already been flying supersonic military aircraft when he spotted a newspaper ad that read: “Wanted: High-speed driver to break the sound barrier,” according to the Guinness World Records. In 1997, he traveled faster than the speed of sound and set the outright land speed record — 763.035 mph (1,227.98 kph) — in a car powered by twin jet engines. His runs in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert produced sonic booms that shook the nearby town of Gerlach.
Now 64 years old, Green said he thought he was done racing but came out of retirement when JCB approached him with plans for the new car. The company has invested more than $134 million into hydrogen-powered engines that it says emit no carbon dioxide from the tailpipes.
“If you’re serious about emissions, you have to be serious about hydrogen, and a land speed project is the perfect way to prove it,” JCB Chair Anthony Bamford said at the car's unveiling in May. Bamford has also argued that hydrogen can better handle the demands of heavy industries than electric power.
But hydrogen is only as clean as its source, and the vast majority is currently produced from fossil fuels. JCB signed a deal to buy green hydrogen, which is created using renewable energy but makes up a tiny fraction of global hydrogen production.
Hydrogen combustion engines also present unique safety challenges due to the high pressure and flammability of the gas.
“We're managing the risks very carefully,” Green said. The car endured rigorous testing, and Green said he spent months learning how it responds to the elements, how the engines work in tandem and how to deploy a parachute to slow the car on the low-friction salt crust.
Since the first race there in 1914, the glassy surface of the Bonneville Salt Flats has drawn generations of drivers seeking to set new land speed records. A remnant of a prehistoric lake bed, the salt flats are about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Salt Lake City and sit atop an aquifer that cools the tires of the cars.
Spectators must stand about a quarter of a mile (400 meters) from the course's straightaway, which is 10 miles (16 kilometers) long, and often watch through wide-angle binoculars.
The expanse on the border of Utah and Nevada has also been a backdrop for movies including “Independence Day” and “The World’s Fastest Indian,” and the series finale of “Mad Men.”
Green will start about an hour before sunrise Tuesday. His attempt comes a year after a driver going 283 mph (455 kph) died trying to set a land speed record at Bonneville's annual Speed Week. Chris Raschke lost control of his rocketlike vehicle called the Speed Demon last August and died from his injuries.
Rico reported from Atlanta. Video journalist Serge Cartwright contributed reporting.
FILE - Bags of ice are loaded into the vehicle by crew members to act as a radiator before British driver Andy Green set a new unofficial world diesel powered land speed record of over 328 mph over two runs Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, on the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac,File)
FILE - British driver Andy Green gets strapped into his seat before setting a new unofficial world diesel powered land speed record of over 328 mph over two runs Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, on the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac,File)
FILE - This Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, photo, shows the Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway sign, near Wendover, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer,File)
FILE - British driver Andy Green goes for a new unofficial world diesel powered land speed record of over 328 mph over two runs Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac,File)
FILE - British driver Andy Green, right, is congratulated by a crew member after setting a new unofficial world diesel powered land speed record of over 328 mph over two runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on Tuesday, Aug. 2006. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File)
