Kerala rains live updates: High alert on banks of Periyar

Places falling on the banks of the Periyar river have been put on high alert by the Ernakulam district administration as the water released from the Idukki dam has reached flood-prone areas of Aluva in Kochi on Wednesday morning. As a precautionary measure in view of the torrential rains in Kerala, three shutters of the Idukki dam were opened at 11am on Tuesday, releasing around one lakh litres of water per second from the Idukki dam.

In the wake of heavy rainfall forecast for the next few days, a 24x7 control room will start functioning at the Cochin Smart Mission Ltd (CSML) office from Wednesday afternoon, said corporation mayor M Anil Kumar. Kumar convened a meeting to review the situation on Tuesday and officials with CSML, revenue department, corporation and health department attended it. The public can inform any problems related to rain havoc to the control room by dialling up 9495728516, 9495728416. Officials with the engineering and health wings of the corporation will be on the vigil to redress the grievances of the public, he said.

People of Chalakudy and nearby areas, who were facing a flood threat on Monday, heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday following a dip in the river water level amid less rainfall. According to official sources water level dipped to 3.53m while the alert level was 7.1m.

IMD has sounded an orange alert for very heavy rainfall in large parts of Kerala on October 20-21. The alert for heavy rains of 12-20cm have been issued in all districts, except Kollam, Alappuzha and Kasaragod. The above three districts are on yellow alert for isolated heavy rainfall of 7-11cm. On October 21, 12 districts, except Kannur and Kasaragod are on orange alert. A yellow alert has been issued in two districts.

In the wake of India meteorological department’s warning that there could be heavy rain in state over the next four days, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan asked all people residing near valleys and river banks to be vigilant. He said that since monsoon has reached its final stage, the chances of landslides and rivers overflowing are very high. Heavy rain in a short span is likely to wreak havoc and disaster management authority has instructed the public residing in such places to be vigilant, he said, adding that those residing in unsafe houses (found in the studies conducted by GSI and state disaster management authority) should be relocated to safe shelters.

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Three shutters of Cheruthoni dam, part of Idukki reservoir, were opened on Tuesday in view of the heavy rainfall in its catchment areas in the last two days. The shutters of Idamalayar dam in Ernakulam and Pampa in Pathanamthitta were also opened in the morning after the water level reached danger levels. Read more