MANGALURU/ UDUPI: Incessant and heavy rains continued to batter the coastal region, though there was a partial reprieve in some parts of the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi on Wednesday, when the intensity of the rainfall was reduced till about afternoon.
Sea erosion has intensified along the coast at many places. While the Ullal coast continues to bear the brunt, the Byndoor coast is also getting ravaged by sea erosion from Tuesday. The fishers have expressed their anger over the apathy of officials in addressing the problem. The villagers are piling up sandbags near the dislodged boulders abutting the sea to save their homes and roads from being clawed away by the raging sea.
On Tuesday, three cars were damaged after a retaining wall collapsed at an engineering college in Moodbidri. The torrential rains caused the retaining wall to collapse under the weight of the gushing waters and gave away damaging the cars below. Nobody was injured, police said.
Early on Wednesday morning, the well in the compound of Sandeep Poojary, resident of Moorukatte, Ullal, sank along with the protection wall of the well.
At Gurupur, the National Highway division of PWD is making temporary arrangements to allow vehicles on one side of the NH 169, connecting Mangaluru with Moodbidri. Water saturation caused cracks on one side of the road at Vanabojana near Gurupur, about 12 kms from here, creating traffic gridlocks on the busy NH. Officials said that permanent restoration work would be taken after rain recedes.
According to KSNMDC, two places in Uttara Kannada received heavy rainfall. While Kodkani, Siddapur Taluk received 227 mm of rainfall, Belase, Ankola Taluk, received 219mm of rainfall.
All taluks of DK District received excess rainfall by 100% to 200% than the average rainfall recorded for the day. Dakshina Kannada district received an average rainfall of 110mm, Udupi received 169mm and Uttara Kannada district received 94mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.
All taluks of DK District received excess rainfall than the average rainfall recorded for the day. Belthangady and Moodbidri taluk received the highest rainfall at 83mm, followed by Bantwal taluk at 69mm. Rainfall in the rest of the taluks was as follows: Mangaluru received 60mm, Puttur received 53mm and Sullia taluk received 56mm of rainfall.
Udupi taluks also received excess rainfall than average. The rainfall was as follows: Karkala 72mm, Kundapur 96mm, Udupi 79mm, Byndoor 109mm and Brahmavar received 96mm of rainfall.
The Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district administrations have declared a holiday for anganwadis, schools, PU, degree, Diploma, engineering colleges, both private and government, ITIs on Thursday in view of the red alert forecast by IMD.
Flight delay: On Wednesday, two flights from Dubai arriving at Mangaluru arrived late. While the one which was scheduled to arrive at 4.40am landed at 11.20am, another flight from Dubai landed here at 6.50 pm instead of the scheduled arrival time of 5.30pm. Airport sources said these delays were a result of Tuesday’s delays/ diversions.
