A red alert has been issued for October 7 in three districts of Kerala after the Met department predicted “extremely heavy rainfall” in certain areas of the state on the same date, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday. A cyclonic storm along the Lakshwadweep Coast has also been forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department. The red alert has been issued in Idukki, Thrissur and Palakkad, some of the worst hit areas in Kerala floods that took place in August this year. The Met department also predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in some areas between October 3 to October 6. “Met Centre has predicted that heavy (7-11 cm in 24 hours) to very heavy (12-20 cm in 24 hours) rainfall is likely to occur at 1 or 2 places in Kerala on 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th of October. Extremely heavy rainfall (21 cm & above in 24 hrs) is likely to occur at 1 or 2 places on 7th,” Kerala CMO tweeted.
“Fishermen have been advised to reach safer coast by 5 Oct. Warning has been issued. Red alert has been declared in 3 districts for 7 Oct. Disaster Mgmt Authority has met to assess the situation. We’ve sought support from central agencies&asked for 5 companies of NDRF,” Vijayan said, according to news agency ANI. The Kerala Chief Minister further said that the IMD has issued a warning about a low-pressure area in the Arabian sea, close to Sri Lankan coast, which is likely to develop into a cyclonic storm adding that the predicted trajectory will be along the coast of Lakshadweep. A warning has been issued on the same. Kerala is still struggling to recover from the impact of the flood that hit the state May-end to mid-August this year claiming around 483 lives and forcing at least 14.50 lakh persons to take refugee in over 3,000 relief camps across the state.
