Kerala still searching for missing residents

Malappuram: A week later, the misery at Kavalapara - about 50 kms from here - continues as men and machines work overtime to recover 26 bodies lying deep in the huge pile of mud which till last Thursday was a hillock.

In one of the worst ever landslides that hit the village, an area of more than 75 acres, which was full of rubber trees of multiple homesteads, is now nothing but a muddy place.

With the place being reduced to mud, 45 houses were swept away by the flowing waters which also deposited almost 50 feet of mud that buried 59 people alive.

With abatement of rains, sun brought some respite to flood-hit Kerala on Thursday as water receded in many low-lying areas and the state began to return to normalcy, even as toll in the second spell of the south-west monsoon rose to 104 with 36 missing.

There was no 'red alert' warning in any of the 14 districts of the southern state as the intensity of rains decreased. An 'orange alert' (isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall) was sounded in northern districts of Kannur and Kasaragod on Thursday.