Ooty: Red alert for rain on day 1, A non-starter

Ooty: Red alert for rain on day 1, A non-starter :- The red alert has been sounded for the Nilgiris from Tuesday triggered a sort of scare among the hill residents as the recent heavy rains and resultant disasters began to flash in their minds. However, the alarm proved to be futile as the hills received only scanty rainfall on Tuesday.  Minor landslips and uprooting of trees at few places across the hills are some of the after-effects of the rain.

Ooty: Red alert for Rain on Day 1

Educational institutions have been closed due to the rain. The people in low-lying areas are being evacuated into the nearby flood shelters while several disaster management teams have been posted in wanton points across the hills. Fortunately, the warning has been proved wrong as only low-intensity occasional rainfall with cloudy sky made up for the weathering profile since Monday evening.

While the traffic was halted for an hour due uprooting of a tree and minor mud-slip at Gandhipuram area near Coonor along Ooty-Coimbatore NH on Monday night, few minor mud-slips and uprooting of trees in the Coonoor and Kundah taluks have also been reported.

Apart from this, the heavy mist in the early hours on Tuesday made the driver of a state-owned bus to lost the clear view of the road and resulted in the bus slipped off the road near Katteri junction along Ooty-Coimbatore NH and dashed against a slope along.  However, no casualties have been reported as all the passengers and bus crew escaped safely.

Meanwhile, the repairing works in the Ooty-Kundah road which witnessed landslips in the recent rains have been taken up by the highway department.