With heavy rains lashing Kerala under the influence of a depression, the India Meteorological Department sounded an “Orange alert” warning in five districts on Saturday.
While Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Kollam, Alappuzha and Ernakulam districts were placed under “orange alert” predicting very heavy rainfall, “yellow alert” was issued in the rest of nine districts, IMD sources said.
Orange Alert indicates very heavy rains from 6 cm to 20 cm and Yellow Alert predicts heavy rainfall between 6 cm and 11 cm.
There were reports of trees being uprooted, waterlogging and compound walls collapsing in many places, but no major casualties have been reported from anywhere in the state so far in the rains continuing for the last two days.
An uprooted tree damaged a car and a house at Chithara in southern Kollam district while intense rains and gusty winds damaged two houses in Chengannur.
Severe waterlogging was reported in many places in Ernakulam district where some houses were also reportedly damaged.
Heavy downpour submerged hundreds of acres of paddy fields at Edathua, a tiny hamlet in the Kuttanad region in Alappuzha district.
In northern Kozhikode, the district authorities banned any kind of entry into water bodies, beaches and waterfalls as a precautionary measure.
The shutters of Aruvikkara and Neyyar Dams near state capital were raised in view of rising water levels, the district authorities here said.
As the rain is expected to intensify in the coming hours, the state Disaster Management Authority urged people living in the high-range areas to maintain extra vigil and directed fishermen not to venture into the sea.