Karnataka Flood 2019

Karnataka Flood Never Seen Before

Monsoon rains have wreaked havoc and so far have claimed seven lives.  Normal life has come to a halt, with almost 26 states and national highways being shut.

Belgaum, Bijapur, Belagavi, Kodagu, Shimoga and Gadarpur are are some of the worst sufferers of the floods.  Particularly, Belgavi that has been sharing border with South Maharashtra which has also been recording exceptionally heavy rains.  The city has recorded 750 mm of rains for last 3 days, August 6 recorded 258 mm, August 7 saw 270 mm and August 8 received 287 mm.  In fact, coastal stations of Mangalore, Karwara and Honavara have also been receiving extremely heavy rains.

In wake of these extremely heavy rains, all the water bodies be it lakes, rivers or dams have reached to their peak, with some over flowing as well. State authorities of Maharashtra have also released water, making flood situation grim for Karnataka.

Weathermen are predicting critical times ahead as heavy rains would continue for next 2-3 days. The depression is seen over central parts of Madhya Pradesh and adjoining areas of Maharashtra. It has also kept the off- shore trough along the West Coast active along with strong winds from Arabian Sea infusing strong Monsoon surge over Karnataka.

With the huge inflow of water, Kabini dam has almost reached 2281.5 feet against its capacity of 2284 feet. Reportedly, once falling short of water, Kabini Dam has released 40000 thousands cusec waters.

August 8, 2019, Karnataka received nearly 3-4 times the rainfall it normally does, adding to the severity of the ongoing floods in at least 12 districts that have killed many people by August 10, 2019.  In some districts, it has been multiple times more than the normal for this time of the year:

Mysuru in south Karnataka received 62.2 mm absolute rainfall in a day – 3176% or 32 times long-term average for that day.  Dharwad in the north received 85.9 mm 2222% or 22 times above normal.

Kodagu, the worst hit, received 180.3 mm, some 800% more than normal.  The region is prone to be flooding due to its hilly terrain and had suffered landslides and flash floods the same time last year as well.  Coffee plantations there accounting for 50% of the country’s total production, was severely hit.  Absolute rainfall exceeded 90 mm more than double the usual in 8 other districts.

The area weighted absolute rainfall from August 8 in these regions is much lower than what the India Meteorological Department defines as very heavy rainfall 124.5 mm-244.4 mm or as extremely heavy rainfall greater than 244.5 mm.

Similarly rainfall in the week (August 1-August 10) was 138% more than normal with many districts crossing the normal mark.  Belagavi topped the list with rainfall 750% above normal.  At the same time, Yadgir had a deficit with only 48% rainfall.

Excess rainfall stands out among the many possible factors that cause or intensify floods. Any particular region can manage rainfall only up to a point, based on its land use and soil holding. Once that is breached, it floods.

The current situation in Karnataka calls for a change in what constitutes ‘severe heavy’ rainfall for a particular region in a specific time period as the India Meteorological Department generates flood alerts based on this definition. There are instances where districts have been flooded despite there being no heavy rainfall.

If anybody wants to donate money for people to reconstruct their houses, home appliances like mixy, grinder, table, chair, water, etc, we are providing through our office.  If you have more more money, at least at this time, please donate for needy people and save people and help people, and you are the gods for helping others.

Mention your name, address, photo of yours, and you can see your picture in the List Donated By Column in our Website.

Bank Name: Canara Bank

Ac No:          1821101107052

IFSC:            CNRB0001821

Name:           Manjunath K

Thanks a lot for volunteers and we really appreciate whoever is helping out for this biggest cause.