Bengaluru: Heavy rains in the past few days have wreaked havoc in several parts of Karnataka, especiallyin coastal Udupi district where houses and crops have beensubmerged, prompting the government to rush disaster responseforce personnel for rescue operations on Sunday. Officials in the Karnataka State Natural DisasterMonitoring Centre (KSNDMC) said an alert for heavy rains hasbeen issued for Malnad, coastal regions and a few interior andnorthern districts for the next couple of days.
The second wave of southwest monsoon fury hit the statewhich is yet to recover fully from the floods in NorthKarnataka, the Malnad and the coastal regions last month amidthe COVID-19 pandemic. The situation in Udupi was grim as some villages havesubmerged, houses have collapsed, roads washed away andstanding crops completely destroyed, a senior official in theKSNDMC said on Sunday.
In the district headquarter town of Udupi, severalhouses, four-wheelers and roads have come under sheets ofwater. State Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday said hehas directed the Udupi district authority to take reliefmeasures immediately.
"I am aware of the floods in Udupi inundating a fewvillages. I have directed the district authorities to rush a250-member team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF)there. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will alsoreach there," he said in a statement. The Minister said he would speak to Revenue Minister RAshoka regarding requestioning a helicopter of the Air Forcefor the rescue work.
According to a Karnataka State Disaster ManagementAuthority officer, a helicopter has already been put onstandby to carry out rescue operations there. Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada are also bearing thebrunt of the torrential rains in the region along withKodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga and Hassan for the past fewdays.
In North Karnataka, rains have wreaked havoc in Vijayapura, Raichur, Kalaburagi and Bidar. Bengaluru, Mysuru and Tumakuru are also receiving heavyrains in the past few days.
According to the bulletin issued by the KSNDMC, heavycrains are likely in the next few days in Bidar, Kalaburagi,Raichur, Vijayapura, Yadgir, Koppal, Belagavi, Bagalkote,Gadag, Dharwad, Haveri and Ballari districts. There would be widespread moderate to heavy rains at mostplaces with isolated very heavy to extremely heavy rains inShivamogga, Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu and Hassan districts.
Regarding coastal Karnataka, the bulletin said very heavy to extremely heavy rains will take place over Udupi, DakshinaKannada and Uttara Kannada districts. The latest rains come weeks after several parts of thestate were lashed by heavy downpour and the relief works werestill on. The state government earlier this month declared 130taluks in 23 districts as flood affected.
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had told a central teamthat visited the state to assess the damage that Karnataka hassuffered a loss of Rs 8,071 crore due to the floods. The state government earlier this month said heavyrainfall since August 1 killed at least 20 people, displacedthousands, damaged more than 10,000 homes and crops in about4.03 lakh hectares, and wrecked 14,182 km of roads,
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