Flash floods: Misery on people in low-lying areas

Incessant rains resulted in flash floods at many places, including Mangaluru Central railway station, Bunder, Alike, near Empire Mall and Thokkottu Junction, on Thursday morning.

Due to flash floods, the Gujarati English Medium School in Alike was forced to declare holiday for its students.

The flood waters, however, receded over time, with the city witnessing a dry spell for the rest of the day. Sources in the district fire and emergency services told DH that the fire personnel had to rescue senior citizens stranded near the Empire Mall after rainwater inundated the street.

Walking through water

The staff and passengers alighting and boarding trains at the Mangaluru Central Railway station went through a lot of inconvenience after rainwater flooded the ticket counters as well as the century-old Railway Mail Service (RMS) post office located on the same premises. Passengers were forced to brave the showers and wade in knee-deep rainwater to catch the available autorickshaws in order to reach their destinations.

The flash floods disrupted work in the RMS office, which handles, on an average, a lakh unregistered mail, 8,000 registered letters, hundreds of parcels and bulk mail. The cleaning staff had to toil throughout the day in order to drain the water from the office premises.

Due to choked drainage, the service roads under the Thokkottu flyover junction were inundated with rainwater.

The misery of commuters was compounded with rainwater falling off the flyover like a waterfall.

Notice to owners

Sources said Ullal Municipality Commissioner Vani Alva had slapped notices on owners of buildings who had dumped their construction materials on the service road and had prevented the smooth flow of water.

Even Belthangady, Puttur and Bantwal taluks received heavy rains.

The water level in River Nethravathi and River Kumaradhara also increased, sources added.