Kerala ups IMD warning by a notch, issues red/orange alert for all districts
CM says heavy rain over 48 hours were enough to cause Wayanad landslides on July 30 and state cannot afford to suffer more damage to life and property
Fourteen districts of Kerala have been put on red or orange alert after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast that the state was likely to receive widespread rainfall, including isolated heavy showers, in the next 72 hours.
The IMD has sounded an orange or yellow alert for select districts, including an orange alert for Wayanad, which was ravished by landslides late last month after heavy rain. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan refused to take any chances and increased the alert by a notch.
The CM said heavy showers over 48 hours were enough to bury three hamlets in Wayanad’s Vythiri taluk early on July 30. He added that the government could not afford to undermine the risk posed to human life and property by bursts of intense rain over a small area in a relatively short time induced by climate change.
He said the showers were being brought by a cyclonic circulation above southern Sri Lanka and a low-pressure trough extending from Cape Comorin to Rayalaseema.