­Coastal districts face the brunt of rain fury

Mangaluru: 14 districts in Karnataka are facing the fury of monsoons, while red alert has been sounded in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada where towns and cities were under rainwater for the last three days.

Sporadic incidents of flooding, inundation, coastal erosion, landslips have been reported. So far seven people have died in the State in different incidents of flooding, landslips, including three labourers from Kerala working in the rubber plantations in remote Mangaluru taluk.

Following the incidents related to rainfall the State government has declared red alert in the coastal districts and holidays for schools have been announced till Saturday.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had a virtual conference with the district in-charge ministers, deputy commissioners, and district authorities on Friday and reviewed the situation. NDRF and SDRF have been deployed in all three coastal districts and Malnad districts like Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu and Shivamogga.

The IMD has also issued 'red alert' for these districts and yellow alert for seven other districts in the State. Yellow alert for the following 72 hours were also issued for the north Karnataka districts of Belagavi, Kalaburagi, and Bidar. Flood alerts have also been sounded in three river basins namely Krishna, Cauvery and Godavari. Hilly areas like Sringeri, NR Pura, Shivamogga, Sagar, Sirsi, and also on the western coast rivers like Nethravati, Sharavati and Kali have been warned of flooding.