Yellow alert in four districts of Kerala : IMD predicts heavy rain in the next 48 hours
The Kerala coast is likely to witness heavy rainfall in the next 48 hours as a low pressure area is likely to form over Equatorial Indian Ocean and adjoining Southwest Arabian Sea
The wind speed will be reaching 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph likely to prevail over Southwest Arabian sea, the IMD website reported.
Fishermen are advised not to venture into these areas for the said period To notify those at risk the Met has issued, yellow alert in Kollam district on Saturday and Ernakulam, Idukki and Malappuram districts on Sunday.
The heavy rain is likely to be accompanied by thunderstorm and lightning. People have been advised to refrain from using electronic or electrical devices during the time.
Kerala has witnessed adverse weather conditions several times in the past couple of of years. The wounds of the 2018 floods had not fully healed when disaster struck Kerala again in August 2019 in the form of floods, landslips and debris slide.
According to the data available with the government, the floods last year mauled 80 percent of the villages in the state; 433 lives were lost, 15 lakh people were forced to take shelter in relief camps; 15,632 houses were fully damaged and 306,766 partially destroyed, and the total loss for the state was Rs 26,718 crores.
Officials had claimed that after 2018, Kerala was well equipped to face any disaster any time. In the beginning of 2019 monsoon, Venu V., the chief executive officer of the Rebuild Kerala initiative, who spoke to different regional media, had claimed that after the 2018 floods, the state was prepared to face any natural disaster. He had said that Kerala was well equipped to curtail the damage if extreme rainfall occurred again in 2019.
District officials had been thoroughly briefed much earlier this year on the procedures to be followed and the strategies to be adopted to minimise the impact of any disaster. The Orange Book of disaster management that contains the standard operation procedures and the emergency support function plan were distributed among all the departments and officials concerned to enable them to deal with any kind of natural disasters. According to the Kerala Disaster Management Authority, the Book spells out the roles and responsibilities of each department separately.
