Heavy Rains Continue in Kerala; IMD Issues Orange Alert in 3 Districts

Thiruvananthapuram: As heavy rains continued in parts of Kerala, the IMD on Thursday issued an orange alert in three districts of the state for the day. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert in the districts of Malappuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad.

It also issued a yellow alert in six other districts - Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad, Kannur and Kasaragod - for the day.

An orange alert indicates very heavy rain of 115mm to 204mm and a yellow alert means heavy rainfall between 64mm to 115mm.

The rains caused property damage in many parts of the state due to uprooted trees and broken branches.

Waterlogging of roads and flooding in low-lying areas were also reported from various parts of Kerala.

Wayanad Landlside

Meanwhile, the death toll following the Wayanad landslide rose to five on Thursday with recovery of two more bodies from the disaster site, Kerala Ministers A P Anil Kumar and T Siddique said.

The ministers told reporters here that one of the bodies was recovered from zone 1 of the search area in the morning and the other from inside the river.

"Searches will be carried out in zone 1 and 2 of the area. Will be focusing search operations near the river also," Anil Kumar said.

Siddique said that postmortem of the bodies will be carried out at the Vythiri Taluk hospital and they will be embalmed at the Kozhikode government medical college hospital.

A landslide had occurred on July 7 at the site of the Anakkompoyil-Meppadi tunnel project for connecting Wayanad and Kozhikode districts.

Now three people remain missing.

Chief Minister V D Satheesan on Wednesday had said that search operations will be given priority.

He had also said that of the 10 persons injured in the incident, three were discharged, four were still hospitalised but stable and three others were in the ICU of whom two were critical.