KOCHI: Death toll in the floods and landslides that ravaged Kerala since last Thursday touched 102 on Wednesday after the recovery of seven more bodies from Kavalappara in Malappuram, where an entire hill collapsed in the landslide.
The government said there are still 37 persons missing, of which 29 are from Malappuram alone. On Wednesday, bodies of six adults and a child were recovered from the landslide spot, taking the number of deaths in the area to 30.
Heavy rains disrupted the search operations at Kavalappara. After the rain intensity lessened the search operations resumed in the afternoon, but at a slow pace.
In Puthumala at Meppadi in Wayanad, where 100 acres of tea estate was washed away, the death toll increased to 10 after the recovery of one more body. Another six persons are still missing from the landslip site.
1.77 lakh in 1094 camps
The government said a total of 177,335 people from 55,475 families are staying in 1094 camps, as of 9 pm on Wednesday. The figure showed that over 1 lakh people have returned back to their homes from relief camps across the state in the last two days. On Monday, the number of people staying in relief camps was 2.86 lakh.
On Wednesday, Thrissur (42502) had the most number of people in the relief camps, followed by Wayanad (35878) and Malappuram (25347). Following continuous overnight heavy rains in Thrissur, people residing in Kole are who had left the relief camps on Tuesday, returned back on Wednesday morning.
No red alerts on Thursday
For Thursday, the IMD has predicted lesser rains with no 'red alerts' in any districts while 'orange alerts' have been declared in three districts -- Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kannur; and yellow alerts in Wayanad and Kasargode.
Exams Postponed
Meanwhile, the Mahatma Gandhi University has postponed all exams scheduled for August 16 following the forecast for another heavy rain spell. The new dates will be announced later, said the MG University examination controller.
Dam shutters raised
The shutters of the Malankara Dam were lifted another 10 cms on Wednesday. With this, all the shutters of the dam have been raised by 30 cms. The full reservoir level (FRL) of the dam is 42 m while the present water level stood at 40.27 m.
Two shutters of Peechi Dam in Thrissur will be opened Thursday morning as heavy rain since last night has been filling the dam quickly. As a precaution, the dam shutters will open when the water level touches 78 m. The maximum water level of Peechi Dam is 79.05m.
The catchment areas of Mullaperiyar dam in Idukki have also recorded heavy rainfall for the past several days. The water level of the dam crossed 130 ft on Wednesday, against the permissible level of 142 ft.