Heavy rains, flash floods wreak havoc in Karnataka; normal life disrupted

Heavy rains and flash floods wreaked havoc in Karnataka's coastal, southern and central districts for the third consecutive day on Monday, disrupting normal life, an official said.

"As the southwest monsoon remained intense, heavy and widespread rains with gusty winds caused flash floods in Kodagu, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Chikkamgaluru, Hassan and Shivamogga districts," a state Disaster Management Authority official told IANS here.

The torrential rains also inundated villages, submerged houses in low-lying areas and caused landslides in the Western Ghat section, disrupting vehicular traffic and bringing down power lines.

"Heavy rains in the catchment areas have turned rivers and their tributaries in the regions in spate, forcing the authorities to advise the people living on banks or in the vicinity to safer and higher places," said the official.

With most reservoirs/dams across rivers Cauvery, Kabini, Hemavathy, Tunga, Bhadra, Harangi and Krishna filling up to the brim, the state Water Resources Department released excess water from them, leading to heavy outflows in the downstream, flooding several areas and submerging roads and bridges.

As the situation in the worst-hit Udupi remained grim, teams of State Disaster Response Force and the National Disaster Response Force were deployed to rescue the stranded people in the temple town and villages in the coastal district.

"The teams have evacuated hundreds of people from their houses flooded with rain water and shifted them to about 30 relief centres set up in the town by the district administration, with food, drinking water and medicines," the official said.

Udupi Deputy Commissioner G. Jagadeesha visited the affected areas and supervised the rescue and relief operations in the town and villages.

In Dakshina Kannada district, several houses and buildings were submerged and vehicular movement was disrupted due to relentless rains since Saturday.

As the weather office has forecast heavy rainfall and gusty winds over the next two days, the district administration has warned fishermen from venturing into the Arabian Sea.

With the Cauvery catchment areas receiving copious rain, the water level in the Kabini dam in Mysuru district reached full level of 2,284 feet.

With heavy rains lashing Kodagu, the inflow into the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam across Cauvery at Srirangapatna in Mandya district continued to rise since Sunday.

As the water level in the dam reached the maximum level (124 feet), the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd released 37,000 cusecs of water into the river.

--IANS

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