5 die as houses collapse in state

By Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Heavy rains continued to lash almost all parts of the city with five persons killed in three separate incidents of house collapse in the last 24 hours.

Whiile a couple, Kampleshappa (45) and Tippamma (38) were killed in a house collapse at Nayakanahatti village, Triveni (24) of Byadarahalli village died when her house collapsed in Chitradurga. An aged woman, Venkatamma (70) from Hosakote taluk in Bengaluru Rural district died when a wall collapsed on her while another person died in a wall collapse at Kendatti village in Kolar district.

Five members of a family had a close shave when their house collapsed at Mandi Mohalla in Mysuru. The personnel from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services rescued the inmates. There are reports of wall and house collapse in many districts as the rains continued for the third day in a row.

Standing crops on thousands of acres in Chikkamagaluru, Belagavi, Koppal, Raichur, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Chitradurga, Davangere and Tumakuru districits have been washed away due to rains. The crop loss runs into several crores of rupees. The harvested crop too was inundated in rain water.

Filled after many years

Several natural tanks that had not filled up in the last 8-10 years, are filled to the brim. The water bodies in parched Kolar, Chitradurga and neighbouring districts are filled much to the joy of local people. Excess water from the tanks was released into downstream areas. Several kilometres of roads, bridges and culverts were inundated with rain water thus impacting people’s lives. The overflowing streams are preventing people from moving out and visiting other places.

The administration in several districts have declared a holiday for educational institutions on Saturday with no respite from intermittent rain. The weather department has forecast heavy rains in Dakshina Kannada, Chikkaballapura, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Kodagu, Shivamogga, Tumakur, Belagavi, Dharwad, Haveri and Gadag districts. Cash crops like areca, black pepper, coffee and cardamom had been affected by continuous rain and farmers are now looking to the state government for relief.

The power supply in several villages got disrupted due to the collapse of electricity poles and transformers. The ESCOM staff are finding it difficult to restore power supply because of continuous rain.

IAF to the rescue of 10 stranded in rising waters

An Indian Air Force (IAF) M-17 helicopter evacuated ten people who were stranded in the fast flowing and rising waters of the Chitravati river in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. The rescue operation was carried out by a winching operation by IAF personnel. On receiving a distress call from the state government, the helicopter took off from the Indian Air Force station at Yelahanka in Bengaluru at short notice and reached the rescue site negotiating inclement weather conditions. After safely rescuing all the ten stranded people from the river, the helicopter landed at Puttaparthi due to bad weather, said sources.