Flash floods at Courtallam Falls in Tamil Nadu; techie dies

Coimbatore, Aug 17: 27-year-old Meena, a software engineer, died as she was washed away in flash floods at the famous Courtallam falls near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

Meena along with many other tourists had gone for a tour at the falls on the 69th Independence Day of the country. While a team managed to rescue 17 other tourists, they did not find Meena.

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Forest department officials, while speaking about the incident, said that the incident occurred around 5 pm on Saturday, Aug 15. Meena's body later was found stuck in between rocks about 500 metres away from the falls and was retrieved.

Over 3,500 tourists were at the falls on Saturday as it was Independence Day and officials alerted them, thus averting possible major casualties.

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According forest department officials, the flash floods were a rare occurrence not seen in the last two decades and lasted about 15 minutes due to a sudden gush of water after heavy rainfall at the catchment areas of Siruvani dam.

There were also no complaints about missing persons, they said.

In view of the flash floods, the department decided to ban entry of tourists and would decide on reopening at the earliest, the sources said.

What is flash flood?

A rapid flooding at geomorphic low-lying areas, such as washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins is called flash flood.

Flash flood occurred due to heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, tropical storm, or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields.

OneIndia News