Continuous heavy rainfall in central and coastal Karnataka has brought life to a standstill and multiple instances of flooding, landslides have been reported. Many people have been evacuated to the safety of relief camps while several others have taken shelter in hilltops in wait of help.
On Friday, 12 railway staff, who were marooned for four days at Yedakumeri Railway Station in Hassan district, were finally rescued.
Since road or rail transport was cut off to the station, district authorities mulled rescuing them on Thursday via a helicopter but the inclement weather did not permit them to do so.
SG Yatish, Senior Deputy Commercial Manager of South Western Railway, said, “Due to heavy rainfall since a week in the ghat section between Sakleshpur and Subramanya Road, heavy earth boulders fell on the track at many locations in the stretch making the Yedakumeri Station most affected.”
The 12 Railway staff were stuck there since August 13 and were unable to move out on either direction due to boulders on both the ends.
“The Railway authorities approached the local administration of Hassan District to airlift the Railway staff on August 16. Due to inclement weather conditions, the airlift was not possible,” Yatish said.
Hassan Deputy Collector Rohini Sindhuri also confirmed that airlifting could not take place.
“We had asked airlifting but the weather did not permit that. We could not go through other means as there were landslides on both sides and boulders blocked the tracks. So, we got them out through a trek route,” the DC told TNM.
On Friday morning, help came in the form of a rescue team led by Lakshmikanth, Assistant Commissioner, Sakleshpur, comprising of local police, railway protection force and the fire brigade.
They all were successfully rescued on Friday at 12:10 pm and were brought to Sakleshpur at 4:10 pm. Railway doctors examined them and all are found to be in good health.