Mangaluru: Perhaps for the first time in several years, Mangaluru city had to face the fury of rains, on May 29 necessitating immediate measures from the district administration to avert any calamities. However, despite their best efforts the heavy downpour left a devastating trail of destruction claiming two lives and an estimated Rs 20.74 crore loss to the property.

Holding a press meet at his office, Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil informed that the district had received 36.8 centimeter rainfall in six hours on the day. “Since an alert on the weather condition had been received on May 28 midnight hours it was not possible to pass the information to the people immediately. However rescue agencies had been kept on standby to avert any calamity.

As many as 35 houses have collapsed in the rains, out of which 30 houses are in the city. Apart from this another 42 houses in the district too were damaged considerably and another 483 houses were marginally damaged due to the rainfall. Of the Rs 20.74 crore loss reported across the city, damages to the houses within the city itself is Rs 78.33 lakhs. The rest being infrastructural damages to the road, bridge, electrict equipments, private properties etc.

Proper compensation will be given within two days to people whose houses collapsed during rains while in other cases compensation will be given after proper examination. The district administration has given Rs 5 lakhs compensation to family members of Mohini and Mukta Bai, both of who lost their lives in the rain fury.”

He further informed that a 32-member team of NDRF and nearly 50 members of civil defense personnel are deployed in city to deal with any emergency situation.