Thiruvananthapuram: After incessant rain, which lashed the district over the past two days, subsided normalcy returned to the capital on Wednesday. Though rain caused flash floods, forcing hundreds of people to leave home and take refuge in relief camps, many left the camps on Wednesday to return home.
Officials said that 73 houses were damaged in the downpour, four of them were fully damaged. The total loss is estimated at Rs 13 lakh.
District administration had opened three relief camps at Manacaud, Puthanpalam and Thekkummodu on Tuesday and people left all three by Wednesday evening. One camp was still kept open at a location near Chirayinkeezhu to accommodate a single family. District administration authorities said that they would not close relief camp yet as they wished to be prepared to accommodate more people if rains intensified later this week.
Deputy collector (disaster management) Anu S Nair said people returned home within a day of the flood as fire and rescue teams were continuously pumping out water in affected areas. There are 119 persons from 35 families currently staying in the camp functioning in BV LPS School at Chirayinkeezhu. In Neyyattinkara, the camp at Adimalathura too continued with seven persons from three families staying back.
On Tuesday, the district administration had opened the sandbar at Veli in the wake of the flood. But, this posed a new problem for them in the form of huge quantities of garbage dumped into the sea from the Parvathy Puthanar river.
“We are aware of the problem and have directed the corporation to address the issue and take necessary steps to remove the garbage dumped on the shores. As far as the garbage dumped into the sea is concerned, we have limited resources. We would be taking necessary action,” said the deputy collector.
NGO Friends of Marine Life (FML) on Wednesday announced that they would be launching a cleaning drive to remove the garbage from sea. The district administration will support them in this venture, said Nair.
