Pre-monsoon thunderstorms that claimed 20 lives and damaged over 69,000 houses in Assam have sounded the alarm bells about rising disaster risks in the state. The quantum of damage also indicates how thunderstorms have become more dangerous due to climate change’s impact. The increasing frequency of such extreme weather events is also a reminder to prioritise smart adaptation strategies in policy discourse on disaster risk reduction. The rehabilitation of the affected population is critical to increasing their resilience against the impacts of climate change. The Assam Disaster Risk Reduction Roadmap-2030 aims at preventing new risks, reducing existing risks, and managing residual risks, thereby reducing losses and impacts from disasters in the state. The policy document explains that as losses and impacts related to disasters and climatic extremes continue to rise, the need for a concerted and result-oriented strategic approach is apparently non-negotiable. There is room for improvement in the institutional mechanisms of post-disaster rescue, relief, and rehabilitation to make them more responsive, fast, and transparent. Official data shows that thunderstorms have damaged about 3747 kutcha houses and 255 pucca houses fully and 61050 kutcha houses and 4816 houses partially. The expeditious release of compensation and rehabilitation grants to the affected families is critical to helping them cope with the loss and mental agony of uncertainties without adequate compensation from the government. The pre-monsoon thunderstorms are also nature’s early warning to people living in the floodplains in the state to prepare for waves of annual floods, but lakhs of flood-affected people caught unprepared point towards the coping mechanisms of communities in many flood-hit areas being inadequate. The Assam State Action Plan on Climate Change cautioned that there is likely to be an increase in extreme rain fall events by 5% to 38% with respect to the base line, and drought weeks are going to rise, with southern districts showing a marginal reduction in drought weeks but the rest of the district showing an increase of more than 75%. Floods, according to the Action Plan, are going to rise by more than 25% in the southern parts of Assam. Climate change will result in more frequent and severe floods, which will increase the costs of reconstruction and maintenance on state infrastructure, including roads, irrigation, water, and sanitation, it adds. An increase in infrastructure and house damage caused by pre-monsoon thunderstorms has added to the rising cost of rehabilitation, reconstruction, and maintenance. Another important projection in the Climate Action Plan that must not be missed is regarding erratic rainfall patterns and extreme weather events. It warns that in the face of climate change, erratic rainfall may lead to increased water demand for drinking, agriculture, electricity generation, industry, and fisheries, and events like extreme rainfall and long droughts may bring unforeseen changes to sensitive river systems. Besides, heavier rainfall events replacing continuous low or normal rainfall across the monsoon in the future may lead to high runoff, flash floods, and therefore reduced groundwater recharge. This may also cause flooding in low-lying areas. Further, some of the reservoirs may require structural changes to accommodate extreme rainfall events and flooding conditions, according to the State Action Plan. Expediting flood plain zoning in the state, which has been kept pending, becomes crucial to helping people identify the areas along the flood plain with greater risk and shift to safer locations to protect themselves from episodic floods and reduce damage to standing crops and dwelling houses. The availability of adequate farmland far away from the floodplain could be a challenge. Flood-resistant crop varieties and increasing productivity can help farmers build resilience against the loss of standing crops in multiple waves of flooding, which leave them crippled economically. Farmers affected by thunderstorms and floods also need to remain prepared for long-draught events, which cannot be allowed to remain on action plans or roadmap documents but need to be institutionalised through frequent awareness drives and mitigation measures. The Disaster Road Reduction Roadmap correctly harps on the need to utilise social media and mobile technologies for disaster risk communication and community engagement. Rapid advancement in weather science now makes it possible for the India Meteorological Department to make accurate weather forecasts and issue thunderstorm warnings. Quick dissemination of early warnings on social media can alert people to prepare for extreme weather events, which will go a long way in reducing loss of life and preventing people from getting caught outdoors, hit by trees uprooted by storms, or struck by lightning. While photos and videos of post-thunderstorm damage can be seen flooding timelines on social media networks in the state, dissemination of early warnings issued by the Meteorological Department is not seen. The Assam State Disaster Management Authority can collaborate and rope in social media influencers to bolster risk communication so that communities play proactive roles in spreading authentic and official early warnings as well as safety measures on their social media networks.