Situation in Kerala, Karnataka improves; toll now 176

: The situation in Kerala and Karnataka, battered by heavy rains over the past several days improved on Friday with the combined toll in the two states rising to 176, while the Krishna and Godavari rivers in Andhra Pradesh were in spate.

Over five lakh people have been housed in 1,758 relief camp in these three states.

There was some respite for the rain battered Kerala for the second consecutive day, even as the toll climbed to 111 with more bodies being retrieved from landslide hit areas in Malappuram and Wayanad districts.

The sunny weather helped in search operations as more bodies were retrieved from Kavalappara in Malappuram and Puthumala in Meppadi in Wayanad, the worst hit in the second spell of rains since August 8.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said 31 persons were still missing and over 1.47 lakh are in 891 camps across the state.

"111 lives lost; 31 missing. Now there are 891 relief camps. 1,47,286 persons from 46,450 families are in these camps.

As per initial estimates 1,116 houses were fully damaged, 11,935 houses suffered partial damages," Vijayan tweeted.

In Karnataka, the toll in rain related incidents went up to 65 on Friday with the recovery of three more bodies, according to officials