Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 16 (PTI) Incessant monsoon rains continued to wreak havoc in Kerala on Monday, disrupting normal life, including road and rail traffic.
Northern districts bore the brunt of the rainfall, witnessing rising water levels in rivers and other waterbodies.
Several residents were forced to evacuate to relief camps in districts, including Kannur and Kasaragod, as flood water entered their homes.
In Kannur, people have been seen wading through knee-deep water to reach safer places since Sunday evening.
“Children and elderly people were already shifted to relatives’ houses. We are now moving to a relief camp opened nearby,” a resident said.
He lamented that frequent waterlogging following rains has made their lives miserable, preventing children from attending school and adults from going to work.
In the Kakkad area of Kannur, an arterial road was completely submerged, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Commuters, unaware of the situation, struggled to push their two-wheelers through knee-deep water on the road.
In Kannur, at least four persons of a family sustained minor injuries after an uprooted coconut tree fell upon their house in Panniyur village in Kannur district. They were soon rushed to a nearby hospital and their injuries were not serious, officials said.
The incidents of the development of cracks in houses and the collapsing of compound walls were also reported in the district, they added.
In Kasaragod, major rivers including Thejaswini Puzha are in spate, prompting authorities to issue warnings against venturing into waterbodies.
At least 10 families were moved to relief camps in the Vellarikund area in the district, authorities said.
In view of the concerns of mudslides, the Kasaragod Disaster Management Authority on Monday decided to temporarily ban the vehicle traffic through the National Highway between Cherkala and Bevinje areas.
Several minor incidents of landslide were reported in the area, and the vehicle traffic was stopped considering the heavy rain alert and the inspection carried out there, an official statement said.
In the southern district of Pathanamthitta, a man sustained injuries after a tree uprooted by heavy rains and gusty winds fell on his house in Malayalapuzha on Sunday evening.
Heavy rainfall caused significant delays in rail traffic across the state.
According to authorities, several trains, including Venad and Malabar Expresses and passenger trains, ran late behind schedule.
As the heavy rain situation continues to batter the state, Kerala Minister for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe O R Kelu gave directions to the officials concerned to ensure adequate facilities in tribal hamlets in interior areas.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert in northern districts of Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod. An orange alert was sounded in Idukki, Ernakulam, Thrissur and Palakkad for the day, it said.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
