Rain: 5 districts on yellow alert in Kerala

With the India Meteorological Department issuing a yellow alert for heavy rainfall in five Kerala districts on Tuesday and Wednesday, the State Disaster Management Authority has directed administrators in the districts to take necessary precautions.

The districts put on alert are Idukki and Wayanad (on both days), Palakkad, Thrissur and Pathanamthitta.

“Met Centre has predicted heavy rainfall (64.4 mm to 124.4 mm) in these districts,” the chief minister’s office said ahead of what is seen as the last leg of the southwest monsoon in the state.

The five districts put on yellow alert were also severely hit during last month’s flooding that led to 339 deaths in Kerala.

Preliminary estimates said the state would require in the excess of Rs 30,000 crore in what is set to be a massive rebuilding exercise.

The Meteorological Centre in Thiruvananthapuram has forecast heavy rainfall (between 7 cm and 11 cm) “in one or two places” in the state till Friday morning.

The southwest monsoon set in over Kerala on May 29. Between June 1 and September 24, the state received 2,457.4 mm rainfall, a 24.49 % increase on the long period average.