DK receives heavy rainfall, schools, colleges to remain closed for 2 days

MANGALURU: The Udupi and Dakshina Kannada district administrations, on Friday, declared a two-day holiday for schools and PU colleges, after the district received heavy rain from 11.30pm onwards on Thursday. Educational institutions remained closed on Friday, and will also remain closed on Saturday. The unexpected May 29 deluge in Mangaluru city has kept the district administration on its toes to combat any eventuality occurring due to rains. As a precautionary measure, the 2-day holiday was declared, taking into consideration heavy rainfall in the taluks of the district.
The downpour was such that the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) sent 222 heavy rainfall alerts in five taluks of the district, which included, Belthangady, Sullia, Puttur, Bantwal and Mangaluru. The district recorded 120.6 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours, from 8.30am of Thursday.

Mangaluru taluk received the highest rainfall of 144.6 mm, with Belthangady taluk receiving the least at 84mm. Bantwal, Sullia and Puttur taluks received 129mm, 124 mm and 121mm of rainfall, respectively, indicating the extent of downpour last night, till Friday morning. Last year, the district had received just 4.4mm of rainfall on the same day. The district receives 941 mm of rainfall as the normal average till June-end, and this year, the rainfall has been 159mm in the first eight days of the month. Last year, it was 98mm of rainfall till June 8.

Though the exact nature of destruction due to the rain was not available, Mescom officials said there were widespread power outages across the district, due to trees being uprooted or branches falling over electric lines, at various places. At Kumbhakkodu in Aletti village of Sullia taluk, a huge tree fell across the road, which was uprooted by gales, disrupting traffic for more than three hours. The tree was later cut and removed by villagers along with Home Guards and forest department officials.

The water level in the Nethravathi river at Uppinangady was touching the danger levels. While the danger level was 28.5 meters, the water had already reached 24 metres on Friday morning.

After the district administration declared a holiday, there was a sudden lull and the rain petered off, but the skies were overcast, indicating rainfall later in the evening.

KSNMDC started sending heavy rainfall alerts as early as 11.30 pm on Thursday night, starting with 65.5mm of rainfall being recorded at Kanakamajalu of Sullia taluk and 124.5mm of rainfall at Kokkada of Belthangady taluk. KSNMDC sends heavy rainfall alerts on specific areas where heavy rainfall occurs in a span of 10-15 minutes.

Heavy rainfall warning: Meanwhile the India Meteorological Department issued heavy rainfall warning for the coast, stating that heavy to very heavy rain was likely to occur at a few places, with extremely heavy rain at isolated places in Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts of coastal Karnataka, where rainfall will exceed 205 mm. Heavy to very heavy rain is likely to occur at a few places over Dakshina Kannada district, where rainfall will exceed 115 mm on Saturday, as per a forecast. The warning continues till June 13.