Mangaluru: Relentless downpours wreaked havoc across parts of Karnataka on Sunday, prompting the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) to issue a red alert for several districts. Mangaluru was among the worst-hit, with many low-lying areas submerged under floodwaters, displacing residents and bringing normal life to a halt.
In Attavar, 65-year-old Susheela stood outside the relief centre at the Mini Town Hall with just the clothes on her back. “Everything was swept away—food, utensils, clothes,” she said. She, her daughter Saritha, and two grandchildren were forced to abandon their home near Sri Krishna Bhajana Mandira after the flood hit.
Saritha recounted the chaos: “Water gushed in suddenly. We tried to save what we could. I even placed my daughter’s school bag on the wall hoping it’d stay dry. But the house has visible cracks now. We fear it may collapse.”
Susheela added that during a previous spell of rain on May 29, water entered their home at 1:30 am, rising up to chest level. “Even the Bhajana Mandira we took refuge in was flooded,” she said. “We returned the next day to find the refrigerator overturned and our belongings gone.”
Nearby, 66-year-old Saraswathi, who lives alone near the Vaidyanatha Temple, said her mud-walled house is on the brink of collapse. “Every monsoon I fear for my life. I have nowhere else to go,” she shared.
Though the Mangaluru City Corporation has provided essentials at the shelter, anxiety looms large. “We don’t know what we’ll return to,” Saritha said.
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