Many States Reel Under Monsoon Fury, 70 Dead

28 killed in Kerala, seven die in Karnataka’s Kodagu.

The depression that has caused torrential rainfall mainly in Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, claiming at least 70 lives and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, is expected to abate from Saturday, the chief of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday.

“Except for Rajasthan, there will be a marked reduction in rain from tomorrow [Saturday]. While these are extremely heavy rains, they are nowhere close to record rainfall that these States have witnessed in the past,” M. Mohapatra, Director-General, IMD, told The Hindu.

Extremely heavy rain battered the western coastal States and many parts of the Western Ghats on Thursday night, killing 28 persons in central and northern districts of Kerala and prompting the evacuation of nearly 65,000 people.

Rescue under way

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday that at Kavalappara, near Nilambur in Malappuram district, rescue workers were struggling to trace at least 40 people feared trapped in a massive landslip. “Three bodies have been recovered,” he said after a review meeting.

The bodies of nine people were recovered from Meppadi, Wayanad district, the site of a second landslip. “It is not yet clear how many people were affected... Rescue operations using excavators are in progress. Eleven deaths have been reported in Wayanad district so far,” Mr. Vijayan said.

As of Friday, 64,103 people had been shifted to 738 camps in the flood-hit districts. Thirteen dams — seven maintained by the Kerala State Electricity Board and six by the Water Resources Department — were opened. Twelve teams of the NDRF were deployed and Army units rushed to Idukki and Malappuram, he said.

The IMD has issued red alerts in seven districts — Ernakulam, Idukki, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Kannur — for Saturday.