As Cyclone Dana barrels toward the coasts of Odisha, threatening to impact nearly half of the state's population, the government is racing against time to execute a massive evacuation plan aimed at relocating about 10 lakh people in several coastal districts to safety. In West Bengal, the cyclone is set to bring heavy rainfall in several southern West Bengal districts, including Kolkata, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.
A sudden downpour in Delhi caught citizens off guard and caused heavy waterlogging and traffic jams on Tuesday while Mumbai breathed a sigh of relief as showers stopped a day after heavy rain brought the metropolis to its knees.
Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force consisting of over 60 personnel reached on Friday morning, while 12 personnel from the State Disaster Response Force are already at the site.
India needs another shot of difficult reform, of the kind only possible at gunpoint. Mr Trump holds that gun to our heads now. A drastic reduction in tariff protection, other elements of sarkari wet-nursing will force entrepreneurial India to become competitive again, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall near Jakhau Port in Gujarat on Thursday evening with a wind speed of 115-125 kmph gusting to 140 kmph as heavy rains lashed the coastal region, where several areas plunged into darkness due to power cuts and a large number of trees, electric poles and hoardings got uprooted.
The flood situation in Assam deteriorated on Thursday with one more person losing his life and nearly 7.18 lakh people in 27 districts remaining affected by the deluge, an official bulletin said.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had informed that as per the preliminary report, the total damage due to floods in the state is estimated to be worth Rs 8,316 crore.
The government has asked the general public to call toll free numbers 1070 and 1077 during emergency situations .
A series of flash floods in Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh killed at least 16 people on Wednesday and damaged several residential houses, standing crops and a mini power plant, officials said.
An estimated 1.5 lakh people are being shifted from low-lying coastal areas in Gujarat while 54 teams of the NDRF and SDRF remained deployed on Sunday in view of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) warning that the very severe cyclonic storm Tauktae will reach the state coast on Monday evening and cross it on early Tuesday morning.
Our men are deputed in the dedicated control rooms of states so that we are on the same page with the local authority in terms of the information, work and tasking, he added.
The Seismological department said that the quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and lasted for about two minutes.
The cyclonic depression may have crossed the Tamil Nadu coast on Thursday evening, but the state continues to be battered by heavy rains.
Since the yatra began, as many as 28 tourists en route to Kedarnath have died due to various reasons.
Some 50 people have been rescued so far from cable cars which were left dangling mid-air after a malfunction of the ropeway which saw trolley cars colliding on Sunday 4 pm.
Chaired by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha and attended by chiefs of the three services, secretaries of home, defence and others, the National Crisis Management Committee took stock of the prevailing situation in Kerala and directed all concerned to ensure continued assistance to the state government to meet the crisis, a home ministry spokesperson said.
As many as 21,080 villagers from Vasai, Palghar, Dahanu and Talasari talukas, which are likely to be affected by the cyclonic storm, have been shifted to safer places, district collector Dr Kailas Shinde said.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and other agencies resumed the search and rescue operation for the fourth day on Sunday at Irshalwadi village in Maharashtra's Raigad district where a massive landslide led to the death of at least 27 people, officials said.
States were directed to ensure there is no movement of people across cities or on highways. Only movement of goods should be allowed.
The water level rose above the danger mark in Haridwar and Delhi and the level at Bhakra dam was a foot above the permissible mark.
All armed forces including the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and Indian Coast Guard have made necessary preparation to provide assistance to the local people of Gujarat.
During the heavy rains through the week here and other regions of Tamil Nadu not only inflatable boats, but preparedness, determination and presence of mind came in handy for personnel including policemen and women, civic and forest workers who rescued people, animals and snakes.
People lost their lives in the affected districts due to incidents of drowning, electrocution, house collapse and falling of trees, a disaster management department release said.
Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and its suburbs on Wednesday, causing flooding on roads and rail tracks and disrupting suburban train services as the south-west monsoon arrived in the city.
The Centre on Sunday assured all help and assistance to Bihar for rescue and relief in the wake of emerging situation due to overflow in Kosi following a landslide in Nepal creating an artificial dam on the river and triggering possibility of floods.
Three national highways in Kutch, Navsari and Dang districts were blocked due to damage caused by rains. Fifty one state highways and over 400 panchayat roads have also been damaged, state Disaster Management Minister Rajendra Trivedi told reporters.
The search operation was suspended around 6 pm on Friday due to heavy rains, an NDRF official said.
Four persons were arrested on Monday in connection with the collapse of the cable suspension bridge on the Machchu river in Morbi in Gujarat in which 134 people were killed, the police said.
85 rescue and relief teams have been pre-positioned in 'vulnerable' states and all its 12 battalions across the country have been alerted and asked to be prepared to tackle any flood situation caused by heavy rains.
Officials said 13 more families living in houses with huge cracks were moved by the administration to safe locations on Sunday.
Many low-lying areas in West Bengal's sub-Himalayan region were reeling from a flood-like situation while major rivers in Bihar were flowing above the danger level at several places as unabated heavy rain lashed the country's eastern parts on Sunday.
Under its impact, rains will start on Sunday night and gradually increase on Monday in the northern districts of Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram, S Balachandran, Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, said.
Indian and the United States navy are conducting their annual amphibious training exercise -- Habu Nag -- in the East China Sea, which is designed to enhance their bilateral interoperability, including humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
The apex court urged the central government to update the drought management manual by December 31.
The death toll from the Uttarakhand glacier disaster rose to 31 with five more bodies being recovered, officials said on Tuesday as multiple agencies raced against time to reach about 30 workers trapped inside a tunnel in a power project site and 175 people remained missing.
The prime minister also asserted that in view of the COVID-19 situation, the states must ensure that people follow all health precautions such as wearing of face masks, hand sanitisation and maintaining an adequate physical distance with each other while undertaking rescue efforts.
The Army, National Disaster Response Force and local rescue teams have been called in for the rescue work, the Kinnaur deputy commissioner said.
So far, 15 bodies have been recovered from the debris, while 12 persons are still missing.
The Punjab government has ordered the closure of schools till July 13 while in Chandigarh schools are closed till Thursday.
We the people are left in the wind, waiting on the whims of an unengaged president and an oligarch with a nearly bottomless wallet, observes Sree Sreenivasan.
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