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18 killed as rain onslaught rages across states
The deaths were reported in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
At least 18 people, including six children, were killed in rain-related incidents in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh while thousands were evacuated as heavy rain continued on Wednesday.
Rescue operations also continued in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where heavy rainfall has inundated the Godavari River and resulted in an unprecedented inflow of water into reservoirs.
In Mumbai, the rain showers caused flooding in several parts of the city leading. Across Maharashtra, At least nine people, including three children, died in rain-related incidents, while 95 people were evacuated from flooded places.
Thirteen teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and three of the State Disaster Response Force were deployed in vulnerable districts of the state, officials said. The Met department has issued a red alert of extremely heavy rains at isolated places for Nashik, Palghar, and Pune districts for the next three days.
Wednesday’s rain was a result of the monsoon being very active in Maharashtra. “This same state will continue for the next three days owing to steady favourable synoptic conditions. In south coastal Orissa, the low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal has stayed well marked and the cyclone circulation extends up to 7.6km. East-west shear zone at the middle level of the atmosphere is ideal for this weather condition,” said Jayant Sarkar, deputy director general, western region, IMD.
Meanwhile, three children were killed and four others injured after being struck by lightning amid rains in Madhya Pradesh’s Agar Malwa district.
In Gujarat on the other hand, six people died in rain-related incidents in the 24 hours that ended at 6pm on Wednesday, raising the toll to 69 since June 1.
A total of 27,896 people were evacuated from flood-affected areas and 18,225 of them remained in shelters while the others have returned home, state Disaster Management Minister Rajendra Trivedi said.
Since Monday night, parts of Kutch and Rajkot also started receiving heavy rain showers, officials said.
The IMD has issued a ‘red alert’ for heavy to very heavy rains in Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Tapi, Dang, Narmada, Chhota Udepur districts, as well as Kutch, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka and Morbi in the Saurashtra region till Wednesday morning.
In Andhra Pradesh, the inflow and outflow at Dowleshwaram barrage stood at 15.07 lakh cusecs, resulting in inundation of several island villages in Konaseema district.
State special chief secretary (disaster management) G Sai Prasad, who has been monitoring the flood situation said a third danger signal would be sounded on Thursday morning at Dowleshwaram, for evacuation of people in the Konaseema islands to safer places.
“In all, five NDRF and four SDRF teams have been pressed into service to meet any eventuality between Wednesday night and Thursday morning,” he said.
According to M Muddukrishna, chief general manager of Polavaram project, though the project is still under construction, the lifting of all 48 gates was done to release flood water to the downstream through the approach channel, spillway, spill channel and pilot channel, spread across 6 kilometres, which proved the efficiency of the project.
“The hydraulic gates installed at Polavaram are so gigantic that they can withstand a pressure of 50 lakh cusecs of flood water. This is exponentially larger than the Three Gorges Dam in China, which can withstand only 41 lakh cusecs of flood water,” he said.
The heavy inflows into the Godavari river filled all the major irrigation projects in north Telangana to their brim, forcing the irrigation department to release water to the downstream.
Chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao announced an extension of the closure of all educational institutions till Saturday, in the wake of heavy rains and floods in various districts.
The India Metorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert for nine districts of Odisha following heavy rain and reports of property damage.
At least 10 houses were damaged due to a landslide in Gajapati district while major roads in Malkangiri and Kalahandi districts were inundated and damaged due to overnight downpour, officials said.
“We have forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall in nine southern districts which could cause further landslide in hilly areas and inundation of roads and agricultural fields. Orange warning has been issued for nine districts,” said Met office scientist U S Dash.
The districts which were issued orange warning for Wednesday were: Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Bolangir, Ganjam and Nayagarh.
(With inputs from Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar)
