Kerala flood relief efforts intensified
UAE-BASED BUSINESSMEN AND COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS STEP UP RELIEF EFFORTS
UAE-based businessmen and voluntary organisations rush funds and support initiatives to help people hit by calamity |
Expatriates from the South Indian State of Kerala shared their horrific experiences of floods back home. A Dubai-based expatriate from Wayanad district said the situation was scary and his ancestral home’s ground floor was submerged in water for a day. “My house in the vicinity is on an elevated land, still flood water flowed through its ground floor for an hour,” said Musthafa Kuniyil, 48, a sales executive.
Many people in his area have moved to relief camps opened by the government after their houses were destroyed by floodwater and landslide Government officials and voluntary organisations are putting a lot of efforts, but it will be tough for the people who lost their homes to restart their life, Kuniyil said.
Loluck Baby, 31, an Abu Dhabi-based educationist who is on vacation in his hometown, Palakkad, said he and his family were terrified to hear that around 100 families in a hilly area near Malampuzha dam, where his aunt lives, was totally isolated after a major landslide. “Fortunately my aunt’s family was safe. Disaster management personnel guided many families to safety and army/ navy helicopters rescued the remaining families. The government machinery was working very very effectively,” Baby said.
He said railway tracks at Kanjikkode railway station were washed away but the authorities restored them in a few hours. “Many old people were saying it is the first time after 1924, our district [Palakkad] faced a flood,” Baby said.
Meanwhile, some UAE-based businessmen and voluntary organisations have geared up their efforts for the distressed people.
Yousuf Ali, chairman and MD of LuLu Group has announced Rs50 million (Dh2.65 million) donation to the Kerala chief minister’s relief fund. Apart from this he had donated Rs20 million (Dh1.06 million) to the prominent newspapers in Kerala last week for their flood relief initiatives.
Dr B.R. Shetty, chairman of Unimoni & UAE Exchange, has contributed Rs20 million to the chief minister’s fund. He also said hundreds of staff from the Unimoni’s wide network of offices across Kerala have come forward for relief efforts.
Dr Azad Moopen, founder chairman and MD of Aster DM Healthcare has announced Rs5 million (Dh265,000) for the chief minister’s fund. Aster Disaster Support Team comprising 200 medical and nonmedical volunteers has started working with local government relief centres to conduct medical camps, health check-ups and provide essential materials for sustenance.
Fazil Musthafa, a health care sales executive in Dubai who established a clothes bank in Kerala in December 2017, said clothes were distributed to the flood victims. “We donated the past month’s stock of clothes to around 1,000 people in various relief camps in Wayanad, the worst affected district in the state.”
The government machinery was working very very effectively. Many old people were saying it is the first time after 1924, our district [Palakkad] faced a flood.” Loluck Baby | Educationist
We donated the past month’s stock of clothes to around 1,000 people in various relief camps in Wayanad, the worst affected district in the state.” Fazil Musthafa | Sales executive
After a brief lull, rains started lashing several parts of Kerala yesterday morning, posing problems to the relief operations undertaken by multiple agencies in the flood and landslides hit regions.
However, the water level in the Idukki and Idamalayar reservoirs receded, bringing some relief, with the authorities saying there was no need for any panic for people living downstream, officials said.
There were no fresh casualties reported since yesterday and the toll in the rain-related incidents since the current monsoon fury from August 8 stood at 37, they said.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was expected to undertake an aerial survey of some flood-hit areas and hold discussions with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, camping in Kochi, later yesterday. More than 60,000 people have been accommodated in relief camps set up in different areas, including in Wayanad where more than 14,000 people had been sheltered.
Ten columns of the Indian Army, a unit of Madras Regiment along with personnel of Navy, Air Force and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were engaged in relief and rescue operations in badly-hit districts including Kozhikode, Idukki, Malappuram, Kannur and Wayanad, Defence sources said. Mananthavady and Vythiri in the hilly Wayanad district have been totally cut-off, with roads washed away and houses marooned by water.
Red alert
The water level in the Idukki dam, the biggest arch dam in Asia which was opened after a gap of 26 years, marginally declined to 731.2 metres at 10am today, after hovering close to its maximum of 732.4 metres in the past few days, officials said. There was a brief respite from the rains yesterday in several parts of the state, but the fresh heavy downpour was making relief works difficult now, authorities said.
The district of Idukki recorded 90mm of rain for a period of 24 hours on Saturday morning which receded to 40mm yesterday morning, according to weather authorities.
Even as the water level of the dam was now below the 730 metre mark, district authorities said that the decision to close down the five floodgates will be taken at a later date depending on the amount of rains.
At present, all the five floodgates of the dam are open and in a second, 750,000 litres of water are being sent out to the Periyar river which touches parts of Thrissur and Ernakulam districts, causing floods resulting in the evacuation of over 10,000 people.
But officials in Ernakulam and Thrissur said yesterday that the situation was under control and the water level of the river has come down which may allow some people to return to their homes.
“As the first step for the families to return, various volunteers along with health officials will first reach the homes and clean up,” a government official at a relief camp in Ernakulam said.
The situation in the hilly district of Wayanad, which has seen massive destruction to crops and properties, looked a bit grim yesterday, with intermittent heavy rains pounding the region.
More rains forecast
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had yesterday warned that heavy to very heavy rains were expected in 16 states, including Kerala throughout yesterday. The weather department had issued a ‘Red alert’, asking people to be cautious as there was a possibility of heavy to very heavy rainfall in most places in Idukki, Wayanad, Kannur, Ernakulam, Palakkad and Malappuram districts.
Around 1,500 houses were damaged partially and 101 have been destroyed completely in rain fury in the state during the last few days, according to the disaster control room officials here. “Heading to Kerala to take stock of the situation in the state. Shall conduct a survey of the flood affected areas and also visit the relief camp sites’, Rajnath Singh tweeted.
The Chief Minister yesterday undertook an aerial survey of rain ravaged areas of Idukki and Wayanad and said Kerala was in the midst of an unprecedented flood havoc and that the calamity has caused “immeasurable misery and devastation”.