Thrissur: Residents have come out in the open about the failure of disaster response machinery to do anything to prevent waters of flooded Karuvannur River slowly breaching the bund road at Arattupuzha-Karuvannur region.
The road connecting Cheriyapalam and Ma-ntharakkadavu had sta-rted collapsing inch-by-inch on Friday night, and by Saturday afternoon it just washed away, flooding the entire Kole lands and homes up to places near Thrissur town 14 km away from the river.
Twenty-three specialist workers from Ambalappuzha and Thakazhi familiar with such situations in the Kuttanad region were flown in to do the rescue work. They diverted the river which had taken a split course with one on its usual downstream flow to the Canoli Canal and then into the sea.
The other created the biggest flood disaster in the district, already flooded with the waters from Chimmini and Peechi dams, breaking the bund road and flowing through the residential areas and Kole land south-west Thri-ssur town starting from Karuvannur, Arattupuzha, Ettumuna, Chirakka, Cherpu, Chenam, Nedupuzha and other places.
They completed the work of erecting a temporary blockade on the side of the bund road by Tuesday noon and have moved to do the similar work at Ettumana Bund snapped during the same time.
“It started to erode due to the gushing waters from the river breaching its banks. A 10-ft portion of the road collapsed first and then by Saturday afternoon that portion washed away as the river chose an additional course as per its wish," Arattupuzha resident Kunavakkathil Ratheesh working as support staff with the rescue team told DC.
“But there was a response time starting from Friday night to Saturday afternoon to salvage the situation, but the available response system did virtually nothing.”
Due to the bund snap, several hundred families in the affected regions had to run for their life overnight, and the new course of the river damaged and partly destructed their houses.
The number of people in the relief camps suddenly rose from 25,000 to more than two lakhs by Saturday afternoon.
