Beware! More rains in store for Udupi district on Tuesday
Heavy rains and gusty winds have lashed all of Karnataka's coastal districts, including Udupi, since Saturday. The torrential rains flooded several low-lying areas and disrupted normal life.
The residents of Udupi district, battered by heavy rains since last three days, have been warned of extreme rainfall on Tuesday as well.
Heavy rains and gusty winds have lashed all of Karnataka’s coastal districts, including Udupi, since Saturday. The torrential rains flooded several low-lying areas and disrupted normal life.
The southwest monsoon was weak in the coastal districts in August, but has picked up pace in September. All the 30 districts, barring Kolar, received excess rainfall in September. The rainfall for the entire period from June 1 to September 20 remained above normal.
Udupi district as a whole received 220mm rains on Sunday, but certain areas got as high as 450mm rainfall, which led to chaos as several residential areas, temples and agricultural fields got submerged in water.
Read more: Udupi situation grim as heavy rains batter Karnataka, rescue on
The famous Udupi Krishna temple and its vicinity too remained partly submerged in the Sunday rains. The NDRF team had on Sunday rescued nearly 2,874 people and arranged for shelter for nearly half of them. Three fishing boats had capsized and nearly 1000 houses were damaged in the district on Sunday.
The India Meteorology Department (IMD), said this rainfall is the highest ever recorded in Udupi in the last 38-40 years. The department issued red alert even for Tuesday.
Speaking to The Federal, Dr Suni Mano Gavaskar, a weather scientist at the Karnataka State Disaster Monitoring Centre, said, “With low pressure area developing along the west coast, the coastal and western ghats regions received excess rainfall. Heavy rains will continue for two more days, but the intensity will subside after September 23.”
Udupi is already reeling under the onslaught of Covid and is now battered by incessant rains. It is alleged that despite a red alert from the weather department, indicating heavy rains, the authorities failed to rescue people living in low-lying areas.
In the midst of the Assembly session, Udupi’s district incharge minister and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai tested positive for Covid-19 last week. The district administration too is under burden handling the crisis. The local MP has called upon the Centre to deploy additional NDRF forces and allot two helicopters for rescue operations in the district. Several residents complained of lack of preparedness of the administration.
