The capital city continued to be at the receiving end of torrential rain on Wednesday morning, prompting the district administration to declare a holiday for all schools. During the 12 hours ending 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday, the city soaked in 10 cm of rain.
Seven relief camps are functional in the district, two at Thiruvananthapuram taluk and five, at Chirayinkeezhu where 265 persons have been housed. While 17 houses in the district were destroyed in the rains, 462 were partially damaged. In Thiruvananthapuram taluk 300 houses were partially damaged while the corresponding figures at Chirayinkeezhu, Nedumangad and Neyyattinkara were 89, 48 and 25, respectively. While six houses were destroyed in Thiruvananthapuram, another six were destroyed at Chirayinkeezhu taluk, Revenue officials said.
In the face of rapidly rising water levels at the Neyyar dam, engineers of the Irrigation department opened all four shutters of the dam by four inches to try and maintain the water level at 84 feet. “We may have to open all shutters by two inches more if the present inflow of water into the dam continues,” an official of the Irrigation Department told The Hindu.
Low-lying areas in all four taluks in the district continued to be water-logged on Wednesday. In Thiruvananthapuram, 20 homes in the bund road at Jagathy were water-logged. Similar was the condition of many houses in the Muttathara area. At Attukal six families who relocated to a nearby ashramam on Tuesday were provided food, Revenue officials said. They have since started moving out to homes of their relatives, they said. Relief camps were opened at the government schools at Kuriathi and at Muttathara.
The fire and rescue service scrambled to remove uprooted trees and to remove broken power lines from roads. At Kanaka nagar, tamarind tree inside the KWA guest house compound fell on a nearby power line causing a local power outage. At Manacaud and Chakka too power lines were severed by falling trees. Trees got uprooted at Kumarapuram, Vettamukky, Kaimanam and Sreevarahom, fire force officials said.
According to KSEB officials there were rain-induced power supply problems at 28 locations on Monday. A majority of the problems were reported from the Poojappura area. There were disruptions in power supply at THiruvallam, Ulloor, kazhakkoottam, Thampanoor and in the Observatory Hill areas on Wednesday morning.
At Nedumangad the rivers Karamana and Vamanapuram were in spate. The Nedumangad Tehsildar C. R. Anilkumar told The Hindu that the Chittar bridge in the Vithura-ponmudi road and the Ponnanchundu bridge in the Vithura-Thennoor road were water-logged. Flooding was also reported from the Aarukannankuzhy area in Thennoor village, he said.
THE Chirayinkeezhu Tehsildar M. Ansari told The Hindu that Revenue officials were working with officials of the health department to prevent the outbreak of diseases in the five relief camps in the taluk.
