Kerala braces for more downpour

KOCHI: Heavy rain continued to lash the state and a red alert of extremely heavy rainfall has been sounded in Idukki, Malappuram and Wayanad districts on Sunday. An orange alert has been sounded for all districts except Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam.
On Saturday, the state received 543% excess rain with many stations in central and north Kerala districts recording more than 10cm of rainfall accompanied by strong winds.There was huge inflow in many of the catchment areas and river levels rose, though not to very dangerous levels.
Eight of KSEB major dams are on red alert. Water is being released from Kallarkutti, Lower Periyar, Ponmudi, Irratayar, Muzhiyar, Poringalkuthu, Kallar and Kuttiyadi through the spillway. There’s a blue alert for Pampa in Pathanamthitta.
The irrigation reservoirs which are on yellow alert are Neyyar, Maniyar, Bhoothathankettu, Malankara, Mangalam, Kanijirapuzha, Siruvani, Moolathara, Karapuzha, Kuttiyadi and Pazhassi.
Among the rivers, water levels in Pamba, Achankovil, Meenachil, Manimala and Bharatapuzha have been rising slightly.
The automated weather station at Eravikulam national park (ENP) recorded nearly 100cm rain in past week with around 30cm of rainfall recorded on Thursday, a few hours before the landslide in Pettimudy, said range officer Job J Neriamparampil, ENP. The settlement is three-four kilometres from the park and largely devoid of any major constructions.
According to the data, it received 9cm of rain on August 5, 30.9cm on August 6 and 16.7cm on August 7.
According to data released by IMD, highest rainfall was recorded in Idukki (Peermade)-17cm, Kannur (Irikkur)-13cm, Kasaragod (Vellarikundu)-11cm, Kottayam (Poonjar)-13.8cm, Kottayam (Kumarakom)-7cm, Kozhikode (Kakkayam)-23cm, Palakkad (Adakkaputhur)-11cm, Pathanamthitta (Seethathode)-10 cm, Wayanad (Padinjarathara_dam)-15cm Kollam (Valiyapadam)-5cm Ernakulam (North Paravar)-11cm, Alappuzha (Kanjikkuzhy) 6cm. Rainfall is likely to continue all over the state, it said.
The meteorological department has informed that a wellmarked low-pressure area moved westwards and now lies over northwest and adjoining northeast Arabian Sea and neighbourhood causing reduction in rainfall activity over Gujarat.
Monsoon trough is near to its normal position and continues to be active. Strong south westerly/westerly monsoon flow prevailing over the Arabian Sea and along and off west coast at lower tropospheric levels likely to continue for next two days.
IMD said under its influence, scattered heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy falls are very likely to continue over Kerala and Mahe during next 24 hours and isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy falls likely during subsequent 24 hours.