A heavy bout of rain that began on Tuesday morning continued to pound Malappuram district on Wednesday, inundating large areas including highways, bridges, houses, hospitals, schools, bus-stands, petrol pumps, mosques, temples, churches, shops and showrooms.
The rain claimed lives of three from a family when a house caved in at Kaithakkunda near Pulikkal at 1.30 a.m. on Wednesday. Azeez, 42, wife Suneera, 35, and son Ubaid, 6, were buried alive when a large mass of mud and soil unleashed by a landslip crushed their house. They were sleeping when the tragedy struck. Their elder sons Uwais, 19, and Unais, 17, escaped with injuries.
Six persons of a family had been killed in a mid-night landslide near Adyanpara in Chaliyar panchayat in the district last week.
All rivers in the district, including major ones such as the Bharatapuzha, the Chaliyar, the Kadalundipuzha, the Punnapuzha and the Thoothapuzha, were overflowing and leaving a trail of destruction along their costs.
Fresh landslips were reported from the hills of Nilambur, Karulai, Kalikavu and Karuvarakundu regions since Tuesday night, leading to bulging of rivers and canals.
Many towns across the district were flooded, throwing vehicular traffic out of gear and disrupting normal life. Towns like Manjeri, Kondotty, Nilambur, Wandoor and Pandikkad were inundated.
Floodwaters did not spare hospitals either. Local people were using dinghies to transport patients to MB Hospital at Malappuram and back.
Floodwaters entered a large number of houses on the banks of the Kadalundipuzha, Bharatapuzha and Chaliyar. Dozens of families were shifted to relief camps. District Collector Amit Meena, in a fervent voice message released through the social media, appealed to the people living along the foothills to shift to safer places.
“You can choose either our relief camps or your relatives’ places. But the situation is very serious. All of us should maintain extreme vigil,” he said.
Traffic along the Kozhikode-Palakkad National Highway 966 was disrupted after swollen Kadalundipuzha submerged the road at Koottilangadi near Malappuram. Most low-lying areas across the district were under water.
Six residents who were trapped in Vettilakkolli Adivasi Colony about 10 km inside the Nilambur forests were rescued in a joint operation by the police, revenue, forest and Army personnel.