{"id":314542,"date":"2019-08-09T06:24:40","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T06:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=314542"},"modified":"2019-08-09T06:24:40","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T06:24:40","slug":"heavy-rains-lash-kerala-schools-shut-today-kochi-airport-closed-till-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/heavy-rains-lash-kerala-schools-shut-today-kochi-airport-closed-till-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavy rains lash Kerala, schools shut today, Kochi airport closed till Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_314543\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-314543\" style=\"width: 518px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-314543\" src=\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/rains-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"518\" height=\"382\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2019\/08\/rains-2.jpg 518w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2019\/08\/rains-2-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2019\/08\/rains-2-80x60.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 518px) 100vw, 518px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-314543\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Representational Image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Heavy rains have lashed Kerala in past two days. The incessant rains have claimed over 20 lives with many reported missing.\u00a0 More than 22,000 people have been shifted to some 315 relief camps across the state, officials said on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Flight operations at Kochi international have been stopped till Sunday due to water-logging, airport officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in a tweet said, \u201cUpdate on relief camps (As of 07:00 AM 9\/8\/2019): 315 flood relief camps have been opened across the State. These camps now host 22165 persons from 5936 families. Wayanad has the most number of camps-105.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">A heavy landslide was reported in\u00a0Wayanad&#8217;s\u00a0Meppadi region. Several were feared trapped under debris.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the fire department are at the site and efforts are being placed to rescue trapped people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cThe landslide in Meppadi, Wayanad was a major one. We are looking at all possible means to rescue. Most parts of the State are witnessing heavy rainfall. All arrangements have been put in place to deal with the disaster,\u201d Vijayan had said earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Schools and colleges are shut at several districts of the state today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">In a series of tweets, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said, \u201cThe people of Wayanad, my Lok Sabha constituency, are in my thoughts &amp; prayers as they battle raging flood waters. I was to travel to Wayanad, but I\u2019ve now been advised by officials that my presence will disrupt relief operations. I\u2019m awaiting their OK to travel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Rahul said, he spoke to the Kerala CM, P Vijayan, regarding serious flood situation in Wayanad. He had also spoken to the Collectors of Wayanad, Kozhikode and Malappuram to review relief measures being undertaken.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Rahul requested Congress workers and leaders, citizens and NGOs working in Kerala to help with relief operations in flood hit areas of Wayanad. \u201cI hope the State Govt will release a generous financial rehabilitation package to help those who\u2019ve been impacted by the floods,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cThe flood situation in my parliamentary constituency, #Wayanad is grim. I\u2019m monitoring the situation closely &amp; have spoken to the Kerala CM and key Govt officials to expedite relief. I will be reaching out to PM Modi as well to brief him &amp; request Central Govt. assistance,\u201d Rahul had said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heavy rains have lashed Kerala in past two days. The incessant rains have claimed over 20 lives with many reported missing.\u00a0 More than 22,000 people have been shifted to some 315 relief camps across the state, officials said on Friday. Flight operations at Kochi international have been stopped till Sunday due to water-logging, airport officials [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":314543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2196,2072,2014],"tags":[466,1891,4089],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314544,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314542\/revisions\/314544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/314543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}