Raging floods have destroyed more than 2,000 villages in northeast India, sweeping away homes and leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

About 1 million people have had to evacuate their homes as the floods from the swollen Brahmaputra River — one of Asia’s largest — swamped 2,084 villages across most of Assam state on Friday, officials said.

Officials have counted 27 people dead so far, but the toll is expected to be much higher as unconfirmed casualty reports mount. Many of the victims so far have drowned, including five people whose boat capsized amid choppy waves.

“We never thought the situation would turn this grim when the monsoon-fed rivers swelled a week ago,” said Nilomoni Sen Deka, an Assam government minister.