Mysuru: With the rainfall becoming less intense in flood-hit Kodagu, there were no reports of casualties in the district on Tuesday and 1,976 more people were moved to safety. As many as 7,594 people are lodged at 51 relief centres in different parts of Kodagu presently. With the rescue operation now in its last leg, as many as 899 personnel from multiple agencies including the Army and Navy are trekking through isolated villages and screening houses to see if anyone remains to be rescued . Eight drones will be used from Wednesday to check for more stranded people, especially in Makkandur, Jodupala and Madapura, according to ADGP Bhaskar Rao .
Among the 12 dead since August 8, nine are said to have been killed in landslides, one through drowning and two in tree fall. District in-charge minister Sa Ra Mahesh said people of villages in 32 gram panchayats in Madikeri, Somwarpet and Virajpet were among the worst affected. The border road organisation is deputing teams of engineers to help the Army engineering task force in clearing the debris. The relief effort involves building 20, 000 temporary structures with aluminium sheets to house 10,000 homeless people. Every family received Rs 3800 along with 10 kgs of rice, 1 kg of dal, 1 litre oil, 1 kg of sugar and 1 kg of salt on Tuesday.
Health minister Shivaraj S Patil, who visited Kodagu on Tuesday, said 170 doctors and 50 nurses are being deputed to the district and ambulances were being deployed to it from other districts. ADGP Bhaskar said 215 home guards had been deployed to safeguard abandoned houses being looted by miscreants and advised people to hand over funds or other aid for disaster victims to the district administration and not private agencies to prevent misuse.
TWO CHOPPERS ON RESCUE MISSIONS
Two Mi-17 helicopters of Training Command, IAF, continued to support flood relief operations in Kodagu region operating from Kushalnagar, Periapatna and Harangi. The helicopters undertook aerial a reconnaissance and rescue missions in flood affected areas of Monnangeri and Jodupala to identify the modalities of ground rescue in close coordination with district officials. Close liaison was also being maintained with Karnataka NDRF team for airlift of essential relief supplies to affected areas.
