THENI: In view of incessant rainfall, the water level in the Mullaiperiyar dam has raised to 125.4 feet from 119.4 feet on Friday. The district recorded an average rainfall of 45.2 mm as of 8 am.
From Thursday, Mullai Periyar catchment areas including Thekkady received good rainfall on Thursday. The inflow of the water to the dam was 395 cusecs per minute. On Friday morning, the inflow increased to 3,153 cusecs per minute.
Later, 1,200 cubic feet per minute of water was released from the dam. On Friday, Mullai Periyar catchment area recorded 101 mm rainfall and Thekkay alone recorded 108.2 mm rainfall.
Similarly, the water level of the Vaigai Dam increased from 49.67 feet to 51.35 feet. Due to heavy rainfall in Mullai Periyar catchment areas, there was huge water inflow to Moola Vaigai (origin of Vaigai) area. Likewise, there was a flood in Kottakudi River.
Bodimettu Hill Road in Kochi-Rameswaram National Highways, which has 18 bends, is one of the important roads to Kerala. In the past few days, this area witnessed heavy rainfall. Following this, a larger boulder fell in the 11th hairpin bend, ran over and destroyed the barricades on the way.
Presently, highways department staff are involved in repairing the roads. The Theni district police have temporarily halted vehicle movement.
On Friday, in the presence of District Collector RV Shajeevana, District Monitoring officer R Lilly inspected various places in the district including Manjalaru Dam, Varaaga Nadhi, and Moola Vaigai on Friday. The officials were instructed to take immediate steps amidst heavy rainfall.
If people are in need of rescue service due to the rain, they may contact the district administration call centres through the numbers - 1077, 04546-261093, and 250101.