Cloudburst strikes Kochi; houses damaged, cars submerged and flash floods

KOCHI: Kottayam and Ernakulam are now blanketed by dark clouds giving premonition of the incoming heavy rains. IMD has put both these districts on red alert for Tuesday. Meanwhile, experts from CUSAT pointed to cloudburst as the reason behind the heavy downpour in Kochi that lasted for about two hours. According to Professor S Abhilash from CUSAT, Kochi recorded 100 mm of rain in just one and a half hours on Tuesday; which points to an extreme amount of precipitation. This was recorded in CUSAT’s rain gauge.

Around 400 houses were flooded in Kalamassery while around 200 houses got inundated in Melepadam. Currently, two relief camps have been started in Kalamassery. In another incident, a car parked in Pathadipalam Museum Nagar started floating in the rain alarming the locals nearby. Ropes were used by locals to stop the car from floating.

In Kottayam, the Meenachil river is on the brink of overflowing. Waterlogging was also reported in Kaduthuruthy. In Appanchira, the road adjacent to a petrol pump got flooded in the rain. Landslides destroyed two houses in Thalanadu. A goat died after getting trapped in a landslide. Low-lying lands in Kanjirappally to Erattupetta got flooded in the rains. Many families were moved to shelter homes in this region. Landslides were reported in Bharananganam.

The case was no different in Thiruvananthapuram, where waterlogging was reported in several places. The big wall bordering the Neyyattinkara Krishna temple collapsed in the rain; Landslide was reported in Varkala Papanasam; Ponmudi ECO tourism centre was closed.

In Alappuzha, more than two hundred houses in different taluks were inundated by rain yesterday. Two houses were partially destroyed on Monday and relief camps were also opened. The Aruvikkara dam shutter was raised by 90 cm due to inclement weather.