The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that a weather system over the Indian Ocean would cause heavy rains in Kerala for the next 48 hours.
| Photo Credit: S. MAHINSHA
Rain-related accidents claimed at least three lives in Kerala on July 16. Reports of power outages caused by tree branches falling on supply lines, inundated roads, rising river water levels, minor mudslips, and a few house collapses were trickling in from across the State.
Sulochana, 54, and her son, Ranjith, were killed when their tumbledown single-room house collapsed on them while sleeping at Kannambra in Palakkad district. The Fire and Rescue Services department removed their bodies to the district hospital for post-mortem examination. Sulochana was bedridden, and Ranjith worked as a private bus conductor.
In Kannur, Kunhamina, 51, drowned after she fell into an open well. In Mattannur, Kannur, neighbours rescued a woman trapped inside her partially collapsed house.
In Mananthavady in Wayanad, heavy rains and slippery roads caused a KSRTC bus to veer off the carriageway. The passengers and the bus crew escaped unhurt.
A mudslip partially choked the Munnar-Mattupetty road, slowing traffic on the arterial inter-State route.
Dam shutters raised
Authorities have raised the shutters of the Peringalkuthu and Malankara dams and cautioned people living downstream to exercise utmost vigilance.
In Thiruvananthapuram, district authorities have raised the shutters of the Peppara and Aruvikkara dams following heavy inflow from the catchment areas into the drinking water reservoirs.
Floodwaters have swamped the iconic Shiva Temple at Aluva in Ernakulam.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that a weather system over the Indian Ocean would cause heavy rains in Kerala for the next 48 hours.
It has declared an orange alert for Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, and Kasargode districts on July 16 (Tuesday). The IMD has also placed Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, and Palakkad districts under the yellow alert category.
Revenue Minister K. Rajan said the government had opened control rooms and relief camps in worst-hit taluks.
