The wee hours of Sunday turned out to be a nightmare for residents at Maruthankuzhy when water gushed into their homes after the Killi River breached near Kadurutti in the heavy downpour, which began on Saturday noon and continued till late in the night. Hundreds of people residing at Kochappan Pillai Nagar, River Valley, Kavithode, Kaduvetti and Mannanmoola in Maruthankuzhy rushed to the terrace of their homes and Maruthankuzhy bridge as water started entering their locality by around 2 a.m.
A police team led by Deputy Commissioner (Law and Order) K. Sanjaykumar Gurudin reached the spot around 2.30 a.m. and began evacuating the people.
By 3.30 a.m., more rescue personnel, including Fire and Rescue Services personnel and a team of revenue officials led by District Collector A. Kowsigan reached the spot..to evacuate people to safer places. Fire and Rescue Service personnel said they moved out more than 40 people using dinghies to safer places.
“We were in deep slumber and suddenly heard people crying out. Meanwhile, I got a call from a neighbour about inundation in the area. When I opened the door, the portico was submerged and I could see people moving towards the main road. Within minutes water entered the first floor of the house and we all moved to the second floor. Our area started flooding at around 2 a.m.,” said Ravi, a resident of Kochappan Pillai Nagar.
Radhika, a teacher in a private school and resident of Kochappan Pillai Nagar, who gave a similar account, said “my fridge and washing machine have gone down the drain. The entire first floor is filled with mud and it will take days to clear up the mess in the first floor and portico caused due to inundation.”
Several houses and boundary walls suffered structural damage due to the heavy gush of river water.
Several cars got stranded in the waist-deep water. It was not for the first time that residents of the locality had to face water-logging but the latest flooding was so fast that several people could not move out of their homes.
According to Venganoor Prasad, president of Maruthankuzhy Residents Association, the area was flooded four times before but this time it occurred very fast. “We were alert during the whole night and some of us even parked the cars on the sides of Maruthankuzhy Bridge. But we were taken aback by the sudden gush of water. The entire area got flooded within minutes,” he said.
