Heavy rains wreaked havoc in several parts of Karnataka and Kerala, where eight districts were put on red alert on Sunday, while a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal is likely to bring showers in parts of Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal and Bihar. The national capital experienced sultry weather on Sunday with the meteorological department saying rains will continue to evade the city for the next two to three days.
Delhi has not received any rain for 12 days which has led the mercury to rise. The city has recorded 78 per cent less rainfall in September so far, according to India Meteorological Department data. Heavy rains continued to lash Kerala with eight districts put on red alert on Sunday. The IMD has sounded an orange alert in 10 districts for Monday. A red alert is sounded for rainfall of over 20 cm while an orange alert is for six cm to 20 cm of rain.
The weatherman said a low-pressure area had formed over the northeast Bay of Bengal and the neighbourhood on Sunday morning. "It is likely to move west-northwest during the next two to three days and become more marked over the northwest Bay of Bengal and the neighbourhood during the next 24 hours," it said in a 3 pm bulletin.
Ernakulam district officials said since the Muvattupuzha river is reaching flood level, banks of the river in Ernakulam and Kottayam districts are expected to be submerged. Also, heavy winds were reported in Edathala near Aluva on Sunday morning, uprooting several trees, damaging four houses and disrupting power supply. No one was injured in the localised weather event which occurred in Edathala panchayat, police said.
The State Disaster Management Authority has banned fishing for the next 48 hours starting from Sunday morning. Three units of the National Disaster Response Force have reached Kerala and have been deployed in Wayanad, Malappuram and Thrissur districts. The second wave of southwest monsoon fury has hit Karnataka which is yet to recover fully from the floods in northern parts of the state, the Malnad and the coastal regions last month.
Officials of Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) said that an alert for heavy rains has been issued for Malnad, the coastal regions and a few interior and northern districts for the next couple of days. The situation in Udupi was grim as some villages have been submerged, houses have collapsed, roads washed away and standing crops destroyed, a senior official in the KSNDMC said on Sunday.
In the district headquarter town of Udupi, several houses, four-wheelers and roads have come under sheets of water. Disaster response force personnel were rushed to the area on Sunday. State Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, "I have directed the district authorities to rush a 250-member team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) there. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will also reach there." According to a Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority officer, a helicopter has already been put on standby to carry out rescue operations.
Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada, along with Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga and Hassan, are also bearing the brunt of torrential rains in the region. No human lives or livestock have been lost even though 105 villages were affected by the rains. The district authorities have set up 36 relief camps where 1,250 people have been put up. The NDRF and SDRF have moved 4,124 people to safety, the state disaster management authority said.
State capital Bengaluru, Mysuru and Tumakuru have also been receiving heavy rains for the past few days. A KSNDMC bulletin said heavy rains are likely in Bidar, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Vijayapura, Yadgir, Koppal, Belagavi, Bagalkote, Gadag, Dharwad, Haveri and Ballari districts over the next few days.
The state government had earlier this month declared 130 taluks in 23 districts as flood-affected. It had said that heavy rainfall since August 1 killed at least 20 people, displaced thousands, damaged more than 10,000 homes and crops in about 4.03 lakh hectares, and wrecked 14,182 km of roads. In neighbouring Telangana, heavy to very heavy rainfall may occur in isolated parts on Monday. Rainfall may occur in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Warangal, and Khammam, the release said.
All superintendents of police and district collectors have been directed to be alert, according to an official release. In the east, a fresh low-pressure area formed over the Bay of Bengal on Sunday is likely to trigger heavy rainfall in parts of Odisha for the next three days. The low-pressure system is likely to move west-northwestwards and become more marked over the northwest Bay of Bengal by Monday, said H R Biswas, the director of the meteorological centre in Bhubaneswar.
Under its influence, several parts of the state are likely to experience enhanced rainfall during the next three days, while heavy to very heavy downpour may lash some areas. Squally weather coupled with strong surface winds with speed reaching 45-55 kmph is likely to prevail over north Bay of Bengal and adjoining the central Bay of Bengal. Therefore, fishermen are advised not to venture into the sea along and off Odisha coast till September 22, the weatherman said.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI)