Mangaluru: With the monsoon arriving three days early in Karnataka’s coast this year, the deluge is already taking its toll of lives and property in districts like Mangaluru and Udupi. On Tuesday, the heavy rain resulted in the death of a woman who was buried under the debris after a wall at her house collapsed.
Due to floods in various areas including the national highways, life has almost come to a standstill in Mangaluru. Flights were diverted, trains delayed and rescheduled, bus service cancelled and vehicles were seen waiting in long lines on almost all roads including the highway and flyovers. With water entering vehicle silencers, several vehicles were seen stuck on the roads.
In Kudroli area, boats were used to shift children of Gujarathi School from the school back home. People were moved to safer areas in various low laying areas in the city. Mangaluru Police Commissioner Vipul Kumar said that a woman identified as Mohini (60) was buried under the retaining wall behind her house which collapsed due to the rains. After a day-long operation, her body was found on Tuesday late evening. A school building was damaged at Krishnapura and two teachers sustained minor injuries. Muttabai (80) drowned when flood waters entered her house in Mangaluru.
With the Met Department warning of more rains in the next 24 hours in the region, the Udupi district administration has declared a holiday for schools and PU colleges while in DK, it will be a holiday for schools and colleges on Tuesday and Wednesday. Udupi and DK districts have been experiencing thundershowers at regular intervals since about a week. On Tuesday around 9 am, the rainfall increased resulting in a flash flood in the lower areas of the city like Urwa Hoige Bail, Kudroli and Kambala. Within a few hours, other areas like Padil, Kottara Chowki, Ballalbaugh and Bejai Kapikad too were flooded.
Major junctions on National Highways like Kottara Chowki, Nanthoor, Mahaveera Circle, Padil Underpass and Thokkotu witnessed traffic jams as the nearby areas were flooded. The most affected were the low lying areas and places near the big storm water drains leading to River Phalguni. Water entered several houses and shops resulted in losses.
Tuesday’s rain is believed to be one of the highest in the district in recent years. It is said that due the high tide in the sea (because of the full moon) the movement of water from the river and storm water drains has been affected leading to flooding.
Elected representatives including Mangalore City South D Vedavyasa Kamath, Mangalore City North MLA Bharath Shetty, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, Mayor Bhaskar K and others rushed to the flooded spots and supervised relief operation. Meanwhile, the Airport Director told Deccan Chronicle that operation of all flights was normal except three which were diverted. "Three flights which were scheduled to arrive in Mangaluru were diverted due to poor visibility. However by Tuesday evening, the three flights too have started landing in Mangaluru," the director said. Southern Railways officials said the floods and land slippages had affected train traffic in Mangaluru.
"The flood between Padil and Jokatte delayed four trains, including the Mumbai CST-Mangalore Junction train by 20 minutes, Mangalore Junction-Mumbai CST train by one hour, Mangalore Central-Madagaon MEMU by one hour 10 minutes and Ernakulam-Pune Superfast Express by about half an hour," an official communique stated.
