Kerala floods: 100 lives lost in a single day

On Friday the Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan said that the death toll in state due to the floods has increased to 164 since August 8. Nearly 2,23,000 people are living in 1 ,568 relief camps across the state.

* Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to reach Kerala tonight after attending the funeral of former prime minister A B Vajpayee. He is most likely to undertake an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas tomorrow.

* In most city hospitals, the staff strength has reduced to 30% to 35%, while the bed occupancy increased to 80% to 90%. Lack of liquid oxygen supply and diesel stock to run generators are two main crisis being faced by the hospitals.Many hospitals in Kochi had to cancel their routine operations and OPD since Thursday.

*Pampa river in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala continued to be in spate after it inundated several houses along the course and stranded hundreds of people, mostly on rooftops.

* According to state officials, Kerala crisis could have been contained had the state “gradually released” waters from at least 30 dams, adding that the local authorities failed to lookout for the imminent danger with high rain predictions.

* Techies in Bangalore have used social media and technology to create a crowd-sourced map of trouble spots to arrange pick points for relief material. Several NGOs and individuals are pooling relief materials and sending them to neighbouring districts in Kerala like Wayanad, Kannur and Kozhikode.

* On Friday estimates roughly showed the damaged crops and properties were worth over Rs 8,000 crore even as a fresh red alert was sounded in 13 of the 14 districts in the state.

* Army, Navy, Air Force and NDRF personnel have begun rescuing people stranded in the worst affected areas of Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta and Thrissur districts from today morning. Local fishermen have also joined the rescue mission bringing in their boats to help the evacuation process of the stranded people in several places like Aluva, Kalady, Perumbavoor, Muvattupuzha and Chalakudy.

* Persistent non-resident Keralites from Australia, the US and the UK were making fervent pleas to authorities through television channels seeking help for their dear ones.

* The state government also decided to raise excise duty on Indian Made Foreign Liquor till November 30 to mop up additional resources for relief and rehabilitation efforts, official sources said.