Alappuzha: Residents of both Chengannur and Kuttanad regions in the Alappuzha district are facing the worst tragedy in over a century.
Tens of thousands have been trapped in submerged buildings for over two days in Chengannur area. Thousands of houses are totally inundated in Mannar and Edathua areas.
Thousands have been waiting for rescue on the terraces of houses and other buildings in Chengannur, without food and water for the past five days.
Three bodies were recovered from Chengannur on Friday. Five more bodies were found Saturday from Pandanad.
Efforts are on to pick up 200 stranded people from Pandanad.
Naval teams have been arriving and are expected to start rescue on a war footing to salvage people from the flood-raved Chengannur.
With its location on the border along Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha, there was immense confusion in rescue operations and coordination.
Currently the military teams and the local fishermen are actively engaged in relief operations.
Locals have been volunteering to help locate marooned people, but the lack of mobile network and connectivity and the inaccessibility of the helpline numbers have been hurting the efforts susbstantially.
Kuttanad's third flood this season
Apart from Chengannur, Kuttanad is another crisis zone in the district. Nearly 1.5 lakh people, almost 80 per cent of the population of the low-lying Kuttanad, have fled their homes in the past two days alone.
Some 90 per cent of the houses in Kuttanad, which has been battling the third flood this season, are still under water.
By Friday the water level in Kuttanad had risen by at least a metre, especially after the discharge of water to the area shot up.
People have been fleeing leaving their pets behind, most of which have perished in the flood waters.
The Army and the Disaster Response Force are leading the rescue operation, but aid doesn't seem to have reached majority of the population trapped in their houses in the area.
Communication breakdown has cut off large swathes of the marooned areas from accessing help.
