Heavy rains, strong winds continue to lash Kerala; Causing widespread destruction
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): A Huge number of trees got uprooted, houses were damaged, rivers are in spate, and shutters of some dams were raised in Kerala on Sunday with heavy rains overnight and strong winds continuing to lash across the state.
Almost all districts of the state received widespread rains throughout the night and in the morning, causing intense waterlogging in low-lying areas and traffic snarls.
In landslide-battered Chooralmala in Wayanad, incessant heavy rains caused concerns among local people the previous night.
Water flow in the Punnapuzha River, crisscrossing through the Chooralmala-Mundakkai region, heavily increased due to continuing downpour, they said.
"We are yet to recover from the shock of last year's landslide. We have not slept properly at night, as we were scared of seeing heavy rains. We feared something worse," an elderly local man told a TV channel.
In Pathanamthitta district, a family had a narrow escape as huge trees uprooted and fell upon their tile-roof house near Ezhamkulam, as strong winds accompanied by a downpour lashed the area on the previous evening.
"My daughter had a narrow escape as she just came out of the house when the trees fell upon the house," a family member said, pointing towards the broken roof of his old tiny house.
Five shutters of the Malankara dam in Idukki district were raised on Sunday morning to release the excess water, according to an official statement.
Those who live on the banks of the Thodupuzha and Moovattupuzha rivers should exercise caution in view of the raising of dam shutters, it said.
Uprooting of trees was reported in northern Kozhikode and Kasaragod districts, where strong winds caused damage in many places.
Tragedy was averted in the heart of Kollam city as a huge flex board, erected on the side of a road, fell, local people said.
A house and vehicles were damaged as uprooted trees fell upon them in Kunnathunad and Munambam Harbour, respectively, in Ernakulam district.
Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday predicted thunderstorms with moderate rainfall (5-15mm/ hour) with surface wind speed likely to be 50 Kmph (in Gusts) at a few places in Ernakulam, Thrissur, Malappuram and Kozhikkode.
Moderate rainfall (5-15mm/ hour) with surface wind speed likely to be 40 Kmph (in Gusts) at a few places in Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragode, it said.
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) warned of high tidal waves from 3.1 metres to 4.2 metres and rough seas in the coastal area of the state till Monday night.
The IMD on Saturday announced the early onset of monsoons in the state. It said that the state is witnessing the early arrival of monsoon after a gap of 16 years.
According to the IMD, the monsoon arrived eight days earlier than usual, and the last time this happened was on May 23, 2009.
Prior to that, an early onset of the monsoon was seen on May 19, 1990, after 1975, it said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
