The southwest monsoon cut a widening swathe of destruction across Kerala with heavy rain pounding the eastern parts of the State since Wednesday night. Faced with the prospect of a worsening flood situation, the government on Thursday requested the services of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Military Engineering Service, and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for assistance to carry out rescue and relief operations.
Major landslips occurred at Rajapuram and Adimali in Idukki and Thamarassery and Kuttiyadi in Kozhikode, with minor ones reported from Wayanad, Malappuram, Kannur and Palakkad.
The eastern parts of the State, including Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad and Idukki districts registered the highest rainfall.
Following a request from the State government, two teams of the NDRF comprising 100 men reached Kozhikode by a special aircraft of the Air Force.
One of the teams was later airlifted from Kozhikode to Wayanad to rescue tribal families stranded by the floods.
The State requested the Centre to send six units of the NDRF for rescue operations in the worst-affected areas.
An MES group from Bengaluru was expected to reach Kozhikode airport by Thursday night.
Director, Met Centre, K. Santhosh said the current spell of rains was propelled by a combination of three upper air cyclonic circulations, one over southeast Arabian Sea and adjoining Lakshadweep area, another one over west central Bay of Bengal and adjoining south coastal Andhra Pradesh, and the third one over north Madhya Pradesh and neighbourhood.
The weather office here has forecast heavy (7 to 11 cm in 24 hours) rainfall at one or two places in Kerala on August 10 and 13.
Fishermen have been advised not to venture out to the southwest and central Arabian Sea till Friday afternoon.
Central team apprised
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan held discussions with the seven- member team of officials deputed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to assess the flood situation in the Kuttanad region.
Mr. Vijayan later told reporters that the government had apprised the Central team of the gravity of the current flood situation and requested more time to file a fresh memorandum taking into account the damage caused in the eastern parts of the State.
