Two kids washed away in Panna, heavy rain alert in several districts in MP

BHOPAL: Two children drowned in flooded rivulets while 20 villages were inundated with flood waters in Panna as heavy rainfall continued to lash the district on Friday.
Seeking help from the government, the district collector has demanded boats to carry out rescue operations. Body of Vinod Dwivedi, 12, was recovered after he was washed away in a rivulet on Thursday.
In another incident, a family from Chhatarpur commuting on a motor bike was washed away as the bike crossed a rivulet in spate. Irfan, his wife Hasina and son Salman escaped the flooded waters while his 18-month old daughter Muskan died, police said.
Similarly, a tanker carrying diesel was washed away in Damoh where heavy rainfall continued on Thursday. However, its driver and cleaner had a miraculous escape. Weather office has sounded an alert for heavy to very heavy rainfall in all the districts of Sagar division including Panna, Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh, Sagar and Damoh for the next 24 hours. An alert has also been sounded for districts of Hoshangabad, Narsinghpur, Bhopal, Raisen, Rajgarh, Ashoknagar, Rewa, Satna, Vidisha, Mandla and Seoni.
Panna district collector Shivnarayan Singh Chouhan said, “I have talked to the director general of home guards and asked for 15 boats to carry out rescue operations in 20 villages.
In 2005 floods, thousands of people were stranded as 165 villages had marooned. I may get boats by Friday. Situation is totally under control.” He said a team of water resources department would visit Panna to carry out probe after two dams were washed away on Thursday. “Anticipating trouble, we had already evacuated 1000 people from the villages in the downstream of the dams,” he said. As heavy rainfall continued in Damoh on Thursday, 104 mm of rainfall was recorded in the district that is also reeling under massive power disruption. Damoh has already received almost half (620 mm) of the average season rainfall (1246 mm).