I see several people confused on how rain can cause so much damage. I can understand your thoughts as most places do not see this much rain. So, I will explain.

During normal years, Kerala receives the largest rainfall among all major states in India. For comparison, the nearby Tamil Nadu gets 945mm rainfall annually, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Himachal pradesh, Andhra pradesh, MP, J&K, UP, Bihar etc gets some 900mm to 1200mm range rainfall. Haryana, Delhi, Punjab etc get 350mm to 700mm…

If compared with US, california gets 570mm, Iowa gets 850mm, Kentucky gets 1200mm, Kanas gets 900mm and in general most of USA gets under 1000mm, with the highest being Hawaii at 1600mm. Average for UK is around 850mm. Average for France is 600mm,

Meanwhile the Indian state of Kerala gets about 3000mm average rainfall during “normal years”. So, by default it is a very rainy place.

Now, what is Kerala(for non Indians). It can be considered as the most developed state of India, with Human development Index more comparable to Europe than to rest of Indian states. It has 100% literacy rates, reasonably good infrastructure and everything is far better than most places in India. Kerala is well known for its natural scenic beauty with serene backwaters and cool hills.

This time, there is non stop rain every few hours daily for like past three months, and that too very strongly. It is record rain never seen before. Most likely it will go in history as the highest rain ever in kerala. Some dam shutters which were NEVER opened in past 40 years had to be opened, and still it is overflowing.

What is the strongest rain you have ever seen? At many parts of the Kerala, that strongest rain is continuously falling for past 95 hours straight non-stop. And even before that it was raining heavily every few hours. Even now, it is raining heavily and the forecast is not good. Many wells has twice more water now than ever seen in history of that well(past 60+years).

Kerala is receiving some 300 to 800% more rain per day than their normal, throughout the entire state. Think of the heaviest rain you have seen, now think of it with 5 times more intensity, now imagine that rain happening every few hours daily for past 90 days and now you get a picture of what is happening here. The last time a similar sized rain happened was in 1924, and at that time the entire state had flooded with immense loss. It was so bad that there is a wikipedia entry about it — Great flood of 99. This time, it could be more intense than that.

The shutters of 35 of the 39 humongous dams in Kerala, including the 123-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam, largest earthen dam in India — Banasura Sagar Dam, largest reservoir of Kerala — Malampuzha dam, highest arch dam of Asia — Idukki dam etc have been opened simultaneously for the first time in history. The remaining ones are about to be opened.

And, remember that we are talking about an entire state which is adjacent to the Arabian sea, so most places in Kerala are just barely above sea-level. In fact, the lowest altitude in entire India is in Kuttanad, Kerala and that is -7.2feet. That is negative altitude which means it is land which is below sea level.

In so many such places, water CANNOT go anywhere. Water which fall on the ground will not go inside earth, instead even if it is not raining, the water will come upwards from the ground even if you cover all sides with walls and drains.

The Kochi airport, which is the fourth busiest airport in India by international traffic, has been shut down till August 26 due to this problem. Its elevation is mere 5m from sea level, and water is not going down into earth, so the runway has been flooded!

Now, how do people die due to rain? Most of the deaths are due to landslides caused by the rain, or houses collapsing due to rain taking away the foundation of the house. Few people have have drowned and few have been electrocuted, but those cases are rare.

The death toll is around 314 as of now. This is not as high as some other disaster struck zones around the world because Kerala is a pretty well managed state, and is perhaps the best state in India to handle heavy rainfall and floods, as rain is usual for Kerala and so everything is designed around it with age-old drainage systems throughout the state. But, every system has a limit, and that limit has been far exceeded now.

The government also handled the situation very well with optimally opening dams and conducting the rescue operation and evacuation at the right time. However, the loss to the state is immense, with the current estimate going over 8000 crore.

So, when Kerala says rains are heavy, the rains are really really heavy, and we are talking about catastrophic levels.

Now, I am leaving you here with this persistence message by one of Twitter account, please don’t forget to donate!

https://donation.cmdrf.kerala.gov.in/#donation