Kerala receives moderate rainfall; IMD sounds orange alert in 5 districts

Various districts in Kerala received moderate rains on Wednesday, even as the weather office forecast very heavy rainfall in five districts of the state in the coming hours.

As per the latest update of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam and Ernakulam were placed under an orange alert, predicting "very heavy rains" in these districts today.

The red alert issued in Ernakulam and Kottayam districts on Tuesday was withdrawn. At the same time, Thiruvananthapuram, Idukki, and Thrissur districts were placed under yellow alert, the IMD added.

Moderate rainfall is expected at one or two places in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki, Ernakulam and Thrissur districts, and light rainfall is likely to occur at one or two places in Palakkad, Malappuram, and Kozhikode districts in the coming hours, it said.

Meanwhile, incidents of trees being uprooted and houses damaged were reported in various parts of the southern state. The front portion of a tiled-roof house collapsed at Ambalapuzha in Alappuzha district as the area was hit with gusty winds. The roof of another house was completely damaged at Thalavady in Alappuzha following heavy rains and winds. Over 5,000 chickens died as flood water entered a poultry farm in nearby Kattakkada in Thiruvananthapuram. With flood water receding in Kochi and its suburbs, residents began cleaning their homes today. Kochi city areas and adjacent Kalamassery and Kakkanad regions received extremely heavy rainfall, causing widespread inundation and traffic snarls on Tuesday.

Flood water had entered over 100 houses in the Kalamassery region. Though experts at the Cochin University of Science and Technology have cited cloudburst as the reason for the extreme rainfall, the IMD is yet to officially confirm it. A red alert indicates heavy to extremely heavy rain of over 20 cm in 24 hours, while an orange alert means very heavy rain of 11 cm to 20 cm, and a yellow alert means heavy rainfall between 6 cm and 11 cm.