With the tropical cyclone Tauktae set to cross the Gujarat coast and make a landfall as an 'extremely severe cyclonic storm' by Monday night, the state government has shifted over 1.5 lakh people to safer places and mobilised disaster response teams.
While rescue efforts are on in full swing, the narrow tunnel and the massive slush that was brought down by the glacial flood are hampering rescue operations, confirm Swati Bhadauria, the district collector of Chamoli, and Yashwant Singh Chauhan, the superintendent of police.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he ordered to stop the water outflow from the Bansagar dam so that the water level in the canal can go down, which will aid in rescue operations.
Around 150 NDRF personnel have been scanning the river on speed boats. But the strong current in the swollen river has made their task difficult.
Over 20,000 people were evacuated to safer places in these three districts. State capital Mumbai too witnessed water-logging in many areas after overnight rains on Thursday.
The maximum death toll has been reported from Idukki district, where 43 people have lost their lives so far, as per official estimates. 28 deaths were reported in Malappuram and 27 in Thrissur.
As many as 48 persons were injured in these incidents and 25 still missing, while so far, 2,29,074 persons have been evacuated from the flood and rain-affected affected areas and moved to safer places, the government said in a statement in Mumbai.
No immediate relief appears in sight as the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for six districts which have been already pounded by downpour, forecasting "extremely heavy" rainfall and recommending preventive actions.
The two western states, already battling a raging pandemic, which has put their health infrastructure under severe strain, opened new fronts to tackle the fallout of the storm which is expected to make a landfall close to Mumbai on Wednesday. They are likely to be impacted most by the cyclone.
The Kumaon region, under which Nainital falls, has been the worst hit by the rains which began Sunday night, killing at least 46 people in the state as houses collapsed and bridges were washed away by swollen rivers.
The Indian Army has been called for rescue operation and four people have been rescued till now.
The official said his team members had been told that there were few customers at an eatery situated in the ground floor and no one knew the exact numbers.
Amid downpour, while rescue personnel, including the local civil police hastened to pull out the injured men and women from the aircraft that broke into two big chunks with a deafening sound, passengers were stunned to even comprehend what had happened in a matter of moments.
Four people were killed and at least 10 injured Monday morning after a fire broke out in a hotel here, prompting authorities to issue orders for demolition of the four-storey building after following the 'due process'.
At least 12 labourers were in the under-construction building and all of them are feared trapped, Chief Fire Officer Arun Kumar Singh said.
The CRPF has lost 108 personnel to COVID-19, the highest among the central forces that function under the command of the Union home ministry, according to data.
An unspecified number of people were evacuated from coastal areas of Odisha where Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore were likely to experience heavy rainfall accompanied by high-velocity winds, particularly on May 19 and 20, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.
Tapovan Hydro-Electric Power Dam, also known as Rishi Ganga Project was completely washed off following a glacier burst in the Chamoli district, said the Indian Air Force's initial report as Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) deployed at Joshimath has undertaken recce of affected areas.
Nearly 6,000 passengers were stranded as train services on the Konkan Railway route in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district were suspended on Thursday after a river overflowed following heavy rains, while incessant downpour badly hit road and rail traffic in several parts of the state, including around Mumbai, as authorities called in NDRF to help the administration in rescue efforts.
The Coast Guard has deployed a Chetak Helicopter to carry out search operation for missing vehicles.
'Me and my boys had never ever thought in our wildest dreams that we would be taking part in a rescue mission of this kind.' IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe, a helicopter pilot himself, reports on how the air force rescued those trapped in the Deoghar cable cars disaster last fortnight.
A Red alert, indicating heavy to very heavy rains of over 20 cm in 24 hours, has been sounded for Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathnamthitta and Alappuzha districts on December 3, while Orange alert (6 cm to 20 cm rains)for Kottayam, Ernakulam and Idukki districts the same day.
The fire department said the four-storey building, which did not have a fire safety certificate, had a single entry and exit point.
The state government has declared a holiday on Wednesday and Thursday for all private institutions, offices, non-essential services within Outer Ring Road here in view of rains.
The accident occurred around 5.45 pm near Khatauli town, 40 km off Muzaffarnagar, leaving 23 people dead, the Uttar Pradesh police said.
The five-storey building -- Tareq Garden -- in Mahad town, around 170 km from Mumbai, collapsed on Monday evening. According to a police official, the rescue operation was called off around 11.30 am on Wednesday.
The cyclonic depression may have crossed the Tamil Nadu coast on Thursday evening, but the state continues to be battered by heavy rains.
Twenty teams of the NDRF, comprising about 900 rescue persons, have been deployed in the state.
Cyclone Vayu was to hit the Gujarat coast on Thursday, but it changed course on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said people living in the coastal belt would be shifted to safer places.
The Gujarat government had evacuated over 63,700 people from coastal areas of eight districts and 18 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and six teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were deployed for rescue operations.
Many in the specialised force feel they are not being treated on par with those in the armed forces. Sahil Makkar reports
Political leaders across parties reacted to the Air India Express aircraft crash, which took place on Friday evening at Kozhikode airport.
'If a major earthquake of the kind that hit Nepal hits us in Delhi, 35 per cent of our homes would be destroyed.'
Teams of National Disaster Response Force were trying to find out any person still trapped under the debris, officials said.
The army rescue teams have been operating throughout the night along with the teams from civil defence, police and the NDRF, trying to remove the debris from the affected area.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the situation, and assured all possible assistance to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. The prime minister also chaired a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to assess the situation.
Modi called for timely evacuation of those involved in off-shore activities.
Tropical storm 'Tauktae' (pronounced as Tau'Te) which had intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm, lies close to the Gujarat coast, the India Meteorological Department said. "The landfall process has started and will continue during next two hours," the IMD said.
A 13.2 MW small hydro project on the Rishiganga river was swept away in the glacier burst in Uttarakhand on Sunday, but there is no danger of floods in the downstream areas as the water level has been contained.
