Rain fury in Kerala on Wednesday worsened to unprecedented levels. Twenty-four more deaths were reported due to landslides and flooding taking the death toll in monsoon-related tragedies in the past one week up to 61. Flight operations at the Kochi International Airport at Nedumbassery have been suspended till 2 pm on Saturday due to flooding of its operational area including the runway.
The release of water from overflowing reservoirs has flooded several rivers causing destruction of houses on their banks. An alert has been issued for all the 14 districts following forecast of further heavy rain in the coming days.
The water level in Periyar in central Kerala rose phenomenally after water was released into it from the Idamalayar and Idukki hydel reservoirs at a rate of 2,400 cubic meters per second (2.4 million liters per second) causing panic on its banks in the Aluva and Paravur areas near Kochi and destroying scores of houses and inundating several towns and villages.
All the 13 spillway shutters of the 123-year-old Mullaperiyar dam on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border were opened after the water level in the reservoir touched the maximum permitted storage level of 142 feet. Kerala has protested that Tamil Nadu, which is drawing the reservoir water, was refusing to honour its requests for bringing water down to safer levels. Many houses and buildings were damaged in Cheruthoni town after the volume of water being released from the Idukki reservoir through the shutters of Cheruthoni dam was raised to 1,400 cubic meters per second on Wednesday evening. The authorities asked the people in areas downstream of the Idukki reservoir to be on extreme alert.
Nine members of a family, including two women and a child were killed after they were trapped in a massive mudslide near their house at Vazhayur in Malappuram district on Wednesday. In another incident of mudslide, three members of a family including a child were killed at Kaithakundu near Kondotty in the district, which saw at least seven incidents of landslides.
Idukki, one of the worst affected districts, witnessed several incidents of landslides and mudslides on Wednesday in which a minimum of five persons were killed.
landslides also occurred on Wednesday in Kannur, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Kozhikode districts and authorities asked people to stay away from areas prone to such mishaps.
Three persons were reportedly killed in a landslide at Nedumkandam in Idukki district while one person died and two went missing in a landslide that hit Chittar in Pathanamthitta district towards Wednesday evening. Reports from Pathanamthitta said that nearly 30 landslide had the Chittar-Seethathode region of the district on the day.
Munnar, one of Kerala’s hottest tourist destinations, was totally cut off after the entire area was flooded with the water released from the Mattupetty hydel reservoir and several landslips caused roadblocks on the main roads. All tourist activities had been suspended in Munnar and the authorities have directed hotels not to take any fresh bookings till further orders.
Hindu pilgrimage centre Sabarimala also has been cut off from the rest of the State following unprecedented flooding at Pamba, the base camp for the hill shrine, after River Pamba swelled as a result of opening of the shutters of two of the eight dams of the Sabarigiri hydel project. The rise in Pamba water level also caused isolation of several other places in Pathanamthitta district.
As per reports, scores of people had been trapped in towns like Ranni and Kozhanchery in Pathanamthitta district due to rising water level and Defence personnel had succeeded in rescuing some of them by helicopter by late Wednesday evening. Sources said the exercise would continue till all those stranded were taken to safety.
As entire Kerala was being pounded by heavy rainfall of a level that had perhaps not been witnessed since 1924, all the 44 rivers of the State were overflowing. As per reports, shutters of 35 of the total 39 major dams in the State have been kept open to drain out water from their reservoirs that had filled to capacity in the incessant rains.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan informed that he had briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the “extremely grim situation” in the State. He said the Prime Minister had assured all possible assistance to Kerala to meet the emergency. Pinarayi said the State was witnessing such rain-related disasters for the first time in known history.
The Kochi airport was forced to suspend flight operations till Saturday afternoon after its operational area including the runway was flooded following incessant rain and seepage of water into the compound from a nearby swollen canal while several trains were cancelled on the Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil following mudslide on the tracks.
“The airport’s operational area has been flooded. Water is entering rapidly from Chengalthode and heavy rain has been lashing the airport area for the past many hours. Flight operations can be resumed only after pumping out the water and cleaning the operational area. It is a very extraordinary situation,” said an official of the Cochin International Airport limited (CIAl), the company managing the airport.
The airport company had suspended flight operations on August 9 following fears of flooding caused by the swelling of the Chengalthode canal after water level in the River Periyar went up. However, the services had resumed that day after four hours. The airport had suspended flight operations in 2013 following flooding.
“According to weather forecast, heavy rain may continue for two more days. Even if the rains cease by tomorrow and the flooding ends, we may need a whole day to complete the cleaning operations before resuming services. It is in this situation that we have suspended the services till 2 pm on August 18,” the official said.
Airlines like IndiGo, Air India and Spice Jet have reportedly announced suspension of their operations from Kochi. All Indigo flights to and from Kochi stood cancelled till August 16 due to runway unavailability while Air India said penalties on no-show, date or flight change or cancellations on all confirmed tickets to and from Kochi were being waived.
A report said that the Air India Express flights that had been using Kochi airport would now operate from Thiruvananthapuram. The authorities were also considering the possibility of diverting services from Kochi International Airport for which smaller aircraft were being used to the Naval airport in Kochi.