Heavy rainfall lashes coastal districts; orange alert issued in K’taka

Over 9 lakh hectares of horticulture crops have been damaged in Dakshina Kannada alone, according to the report.

Heavy rains lashed coastal districts of Karnataka on Wednesday and Thursday throwing life out of gear. Several localities across Mangaluru, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada among other parts were inundated.

Eleven houses were severely damaged in the last 24 hours and 77 homes suffered partial damages. (Resourced Image)

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert in all three coastal districts of Karnataka for the next 24 hours and yellow alert in at least four districts in South Interior Karnataka (SIK).

“It has been pouring badly in Mangaluru and other parts of the district. But no loss of life has been reported in the district,” said one senior official from Dakshina Kannada.

The downpour led to inundated roads, water entering low-lying areas and buildings and interruptions to daily life. Eleven houses were severely damaged in the last 24 hours and 77 homes suffered partial damages.

There are 86 teams from state disaster relief force and 50 civil defence stationed in the district as weather authorities predict more rains in the next few days.

Between 8.30 am on June 28 and 8.30 am on June 29, three regions — Hebri, Shivpura and Varanga — in Udupi’s Karkala Taluka received 265 mm, 189mm and 183 mm rainfall, according to a report by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC).

As per a statement from KSNDMC, “widespread moderate to heavy rains with isolated very heavy rains likely over coastal Karnataka districts” was predicted.

“Widespread very light to moderate rains with isolated heavy rains likely over Malnad districts and scattered to widespread very light to moderate rains with isolated heavy rains likely over NIK (north interior Karnataka) districts and scattered to widespread very light to moderate rains likely over SIK(south interior Karnataka) districts,” the statement by KSNMC read.

The average minimum temperature dropped to 19.2 ˚C. The natural disaster monitoring centre stated that “80% of geographical area in the state recorded minimum temperature in the range of 20˚C to 24˚C.”

“Minimum temperature in the range of 17˚C to 19˚C was recorded in parts of Kodagu, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Bengaluru Rural districts,” the KSNDMC said. Udupi district, about 400km from Bengaluru, received 77.2 mm rain in the 24-hour-period as against the normal of 47.9 mm, registering a 61% departure.

Bidar in the north-eastern part of Karnataka registered a 96% departure as it received 11.2 mm between 8.30 am on June 28 and 8.30 am on June 29, as against the actual 5.7mm.

Traffic moved at snail’s pace in the coastal districts as waterlogged streets posed a challenge for motorists and pedestrians.

“Rains have stopped for now. There has been flooding in all low-lying areas of the district. Water flowed into one school but all educational institutions have been ordered to shut. In Mangaluru, there is flooding on roads and rain water even entered into our houses,” said Nazir, a local of Udupi.

Bengaluru also witnessed mild showers since Wednesday evening and more rains are likely to follow till the early morning hours on Friday.

“Widespread light to moderate rains likely over the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) area. Maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 28 and 20˚C respectively,” KSNDMC statement read.

Less than 50% minimum relative humidity was recorded in 1% of geographical area in the state and parts of Uttara Kannada district as 99% of the geographical area in the state recorded maximum relative humidity above 90%.

From June 1 to 29, Karnataka registered a deficit of 23.8% as it received 145.3 mm of rainfall as against a normal of 190.8 mm. The coastal districts registered a - 41% departure as it registered 464.4 mm rains as against a normal of 790.6 mm. Since January, Karnataka has registered a higher rainfall with a departure of 23.5% and only the coastal districts have recorded a deficit of -15%.