Heavy rains continue to lash Kerala, Red alert in 10 districts

As incessant rains continue to lash Kerala with reports of landslides and rising river water levels in some parts of the state, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued red alerts in 10 districts of the southern state for Tuesday.

IMD also issued a Red alert in the same 10 districts for August 3.

The red alert is issued in all the districts of the state barring Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Kasaragod, where Orange alerts have been issued for August 2 and 3, according to an IMD district rainfall forecast issued for Kerala at 10 AM on Tuesday.

The department also warned of widespread and isolated heavy and very heavy rainfall in the state till August 5.

Various weather models of the Central Meteorological Department, National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, National Centers for Environmental Prediction and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, also said widespread heavy rainfall is expected in several districts of Kerala during the day.

Given the Red alerts issued by the IMD, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said people should be very careful and everyone should be prepared to strictly follow the warnings issued by the Disaster Management Authority.

The incessant rains caused landslides in several places in the Kannur district on Monday night leading to the death of two persons -- a 45-year-old man and a 2-and-a-half-year-old girl -- with another 55-year-old man still missing, the district officials said in a release.

They also said that vehicular traffic was completely disrupted in various parts of the state and the Collector has declared a holiday for educational institutions including professional colleges in Thalassery taluks today.

Data on the daily water levels of the dams operated by KSEB (Kerala State Electricity Board) indicate that water levels in five Idukki dams -- Ponmudi, Kundala, Kallarkutty, Erattayar and Lower Periyar -- as well as the Moozhiyar and Poringalkuthu dams in Pathanamthitta and Thrissur, respectively, have reached the red alert storage levels.

Two Irrigation department reservoirs in Palakkad -- Meenkara and Mangalam -- reached Orange alert storage levels on Tuesday due to the heavy rains, according to the data on the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) website.

In Ernakulam district, tourists -- including two foreigners -- and resort staff of the Elephant Pass Resort near the Kodanad elephant sanctuary were trapped there at around 5.30 AM on Tuesday due to sudden floods as a result of rising water levels of the nearby Periyar river.

They were rescued and shifted to a nearby resort, district officials said and added that a 25-member team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has reached there to assist in rain-related rescue and relief efforts.

The Ernakulam district officials also said that an emergency action committee comprising local bodies will be formed to take steps to prevent waterlogging in Kochi city and supervise rescue and evacuation operations.

Meanwhile, the Indian Coast Guard issued a release stating that its vessel -- Arnvesh -- is conducting search operations to trace and rescue two of the six fishermen who had ventured into the sea for fishing on Monday off the Thrissur coast near the Chettuva harbour.

It said their boat had capsized and while four of them reached shore safely, the remaining two are missing.

Besides that, the Indian Coast Guard also provided prompt assistance to two fishing boats off the Alappuzha coast and were trying to get the boats to safety as the fishermen were not willing to abandon their vessels, the release said.

As the heavy rains continued, the authorities set up relief camps in various districts and tourist spots in high-range areas of Idukki have been closed down.

The government, in a release, said 49 relief camps have been opened in various districts of the state following the severe rains and 757 people have been relocated there.

In Kottayam, the body of a man who had gone missing a day ago was recovered on Tuesday morning from the Koottikkal Chappath area of the district, the emergency operations centre there said.

In Thrissur, the Chalakudy river water levels rose by nearly 5 metres around 2 AM on Tuesday due to the heavy rains leading to the district administration advising those living on the low-lying areas of the river's banks to move to safer places.

A red alert indicates heavy to extremely heavy rains of over 20 cm in 24 hours, while an orange alert means very heavy rains from 6 cm to 20 cm of rain. A yellow alert means heavy rainfall between 6 and 11 cm.