Heavy rains continue to lash Kerala, red alert in 10 districts

 Thiruvananthapuram: As incessant rains continue to lash Kerala with reports of landslides and rising river water levels in some parts of the state, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued red alert in 10 districts of the southern state for Tuesday. IMD also issued a Red alert in the same 10 districts for August 3 also. The red alert is issued in all the districts of the state barring Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Kasaragod, where Orange alerts have been issued for August 2 and 3, according to an IMD district rainfall forecast issued for Kerala at 10 AM on Tuesday. The department also warned of widespread and isolated heavy and very heavy rainfall in the state till August 5. Various weather models of the Central Meteorological Department, National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, National Centers for Environmental Prediction and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, also said widespread heavy rainfall is expected in several districts of Kerala during the day. In view of the Red alerts issued by the IMD, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said people should be very careful  and everyone should be prepared to strictly follow the warnings issued by the Disaster Management Authority. – PTI