The Kerala government announced a holiday for educational institutions across all districts on Friday. Most districts in the state received heavy rainfall on Thursday and a red warning has been issued for four districts on Friday.
Thursday’s monsoon calamity report showed that six deaths were reported across four districts and twelve persons injured or hospitalised. 139 new camps were set up with 2,584 families in them. A total of 8,440 persons are currently in camps in the state. The maximum number of people were at camps in Wayanad, with 6,111 people currently in 87 camps.
Due to heavy rainfall in Kannur district, the water levels of Iritty and Irikkur rivers are rising. In light of this, Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja has asked people residing on the banks of these rivers to relocate to safer locations. She has also urged people residing in hilly areas, where there are possibilities of landslides, to evacuate their houses.
With many areas getting flooded and people stuck in their homes, the state police and reserve forces have been deployed in rescue operations. Three battalions (45 personnel in each battalion) of National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) from Thrissur have been deployed at Nilambur, Idukki and Wayanad. Five battalions from Chennai NDRF camp have been rushed to Kannur, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Patthanamthitta and Alappuzha.
Over 300 families consisting of more than 800 members have been rehabilitated into more than 10 relief camps in Nilambur. Heavy rains continue to wreak havoc in this area of Malappuram district. Due to heavy rains, the Chaliyar river in the district has begun overflowing flooding parts of Nilambur, because of which Kerala RTC bus services as well as other interstate bus services from Nilambur have been cancelled.
According to Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA), as of August 8, nine dams have been opened so far: Maniyar dam (Pathanamthitta), Kundala dam (Munnar), Malankara dam (Thoduppuzha, Idukki), Peringalkuthu dam (Thrissur), Mangalam dam (Palakkad) and Kanjirapuzha dam (Palakkad), Kakkayam dam (Kozhikode), Kallarkutty dam (Idukki) and Pambla dam (Idukki).