Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Rain wreaks havoc in district

Special Correspondent

15 houses destroyed, 185 damaged in heavy rain

TOUGH WORK: Workers dig open the sand bar between the lake and the sea at Veli in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday to drain out water from the nearby areas flooded in the heavy rain. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

Thiruvananthapuram: Intermittent spells of heavy rain flooded low-level areas, damaged houses and brought life in parts of the city and suburbs to a grinding halt on Saturday, as the North East monsoon churned its way across the southern tip of the Indian peninsula.

At Poovalloorkonam in Kattakada police station limits, a 78-year-old man, Paulose, was crushed to death when a portion of his house caved in following the heavy rain on Saturday evening. On Friday night, an 80-year-old woman, Ponnamma Pillai, was killed at Muttacad in Venganoor village when a wall of her house collapsed.

In another incident, a 53-year-old man was injured when the side of the open well in his property at Pettah collapsed.

As many as 15 houses were destroyed all over the district and 185 damaged in the rains. The maximum damage was reported from the Thiruvananthapuram taluk where five houses were destroyed and 125 damaged. Three relief camps have been opened in the city to accommodate the families displaced by rising floodwaters.

The weathermen have forecast fairly widespread rainfall over the peninsula over the next three to four days, with scattered heavy to very heavy rainfall over Kerala.

The district administration acted immediately as reports of damages trickled in from several places. A mechanical digger was deployed at Pozhikara to cut open the sandbar at Veli after floodwaters threatened to inundate 50 houses around the area where the Aakulam lake meets the sea. District Collector N.Ayyappan and other Revenue authorities visited the flooded areas following pleas from local people.

Residents said the floodwaters had shifted the boundary of the lake 500 metres to the northern side, threatening to inundate more houses. They said unauthorised extraction of sand from the lake had eroded the banks, aggravating the flood situation.

Mr. Ayyappan assured the local people that steps would be taken to construct a bund at Pozhikara. He said the proposal had been approved. The Collector directed the Irrigation department to provide a mechanical digger to cut open the sandbar.

A portion of the laterite hill bordering the National Highway bypass near the Aakulam bridge collapsed in the rain. The district administration rushed earth moving equipment and trucks to clear the debris from the roadside. Another hillside collapsed at the Poonthi road. No one was injured. At Thrikkannapuram in the Tirumala village, a portion of the road caved in.

As many as 200 families in the Wireless Colony near the All Saints College were relocated to two relief camps after their houses were flooded. A third relief camp has been opened in the Pettah village. Tahsildar Mohanan Pillai said arrangements had been made to provide food, drinking water and medical assistance to the relocated families.

Fire tenders had to be rushed to various locations all over the city to pump out stormwaters from flooded areas all over the city.

At Pangappara and Maitri Nagar, Chacka, mechanical diggers were pressed into service to drain out the stagnating stormwaters.

In the city, heavy flooding brought traffic to a halt in the East fort and Thampanoor areas. About 160 houses at Karikkakam and Chacka were also flooded. Efforts were on to provide a drainage channel to the Parvathy Puthanar canal.

The revenue authorities said damages to houses were reported from the Chirayinkeezh, Nedumangad and Neyyatinkara taluks also. Control rooms were functioning at all the taluk offices.

According to the Met department, the current wet spell has been caused by a combination of factors including a low pressure area over the Southwest bay off the Tamil Nadu coast and a cyclonic circulation over the South East Arabian sea off the Kerala and Karnataka coasts.

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