Over the past few years, at this time of the year, Kerala has been plunged in the midst of unprecedented rains, floods and landslides. Where North Kerala was affected the most with Wayanadu being at the epicentre. As if 19th August, the floods had claimed the lives of 121 people across the state of Kerala and 2,00,000+ people were affected by the floods and shifted to 1318 relief camps set up in different parts of Kerala. According to the data from the Kerala State Disaster Management, approximately 1,789 houses were completed destroyed and 14,542 houses were partially damaged. Records also state that there were roughly 80 landslides in the span of 2 days. This made it extremely difficult for rescue operations as there was a constant risk of landslides which could harm the rescue operatives themselves. The main districts that have been severely affected include Wayanad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, Palakkad, Thrissur and Ernakulam districts.
For Immediate relief, various items were supplied to the Central Collection Centre of the District Administration for distribution to each camp (refer to table for detailed items list).
To support the rescue of the victims, Sewa International along with other partner organisations such as Sewabharathi Keralam launched an additional 24-hour helpline number and Whatsapp group caked #KeralaFloods Sewa Support which allowed victims or family members to contact them and inform the locations and further details of stranded victims. This information were triaged to Indian Military hotline in Kerala and also to volunteers on the ground in the specified location by mapping the GPS coordinates of victims and rescue teams.
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