Kottapuzha flash flood toll reaches six after missing woman’s body is recovered
Flood
How the score is calculated
The score starts at 8. It adds points from recorded affected, deaths, displaced and casualty counts, plus terms found in the story title, event type or status. For each count, only its highest matching band is used.
- Affected people
- 1–999: +5 · 1,000–9,999: +12 · 10,000–99,999: +20 · 100,000–999,999: +28 · 1 million+: +35
- Deaths
- 1–9: +8 · 10–99: +14 · 100–999: +22 · 1,000+: +30
- Displaced people
- 1–9,999: +6 · 10,000–99,999: +12 · 100,000+: +18
- Casualties
- 100 or more: +8
- Story wording
- +10 for terms such as catastrophe, famine, war, conflict, major earthquake, mass casualty or critical. Otherwise, +5 for active, ongoing, emergency, outbreak, cyclone or hurricane.
Score bands: Watch 0–24 · Moderate 25–49 · High 50–74 · Critical 75–100. Scores are capped at 100. Missing or unparseable figures add no points.
This is a rule-based WorldsAid triage indicator, not an official or independently validated classification. It does not account for recency or local context, and it can understate events with incomplete reporting. Check the linked sources.
In brief
- What happenedA sudden flash flood in the Kottapuzha River near TK Colony in Nilambur, Malappuram district, swept away six people on 20 September 2026 after heavy rain upstream.
- Reported impactAffected persons: 6 · Deaths: 6 · People swept away at Kottapuzha: 6
- What help is neededResponse priorities should be confirmed in the linked source reports as needs change.
What changed
Updated verified snapshot
This record was first dated 2026-09-20 and last verified 2026-09-22T13:33:00+05:30.
Situation
A sudden flash flood in the Kottapuzha River near TK Colony in Nilambur, Malappuram district, swept away six people on 20 September 2026 after heavy rain upstream. On 22 September, rescuers recovered the body of the last missing person, 26-year-old Sajitha, near Pookkottumpadam at about 12:30 IST. The confirmed death toll therefore reached six and the search for the six people swept away concluded. The earlier 21 September snapshot of five deaths and one missing person is preserved as a dated observation. The orange-alert districts reported on 21 September are a historical forecast; check India Meteorological Department and Kerala authorities for current warnings.
WorldsAid verification
A WorldsAid editor reviewed this record against 3 attributed sources, cleaned feed formatting and checked the crisis, place and reporting date. 9 human-impact figures were separated from the narrative and dated where the source allowed. Earlier observations remain in the evidence history instead of being silently overwritten.
Verified figures
- Affected persons
- 6 retained at 2026-09-22T13:33:00+05:30
- Deaths
- 6 retained at 2026-09-22T13:33:00+05:30
- People swept away at Kottapuzha
- 6 retained at 2026-09-22T13:33:00+05:30
- Confirmed deaths
- 6 people · 22 September 2026 retained at 2026-09-22T13:33:00+05:30
- Still missing
- 0 people · search concluded 22 September 2026 retained at 2026-09-22T13:33:00+05:30
- Earlier observation
- 5 deaths · 1 missing · 21 September 2026 retained at 2026-09-22T13:33:00+05:30
- Orange-alert districts in the 21 September report
- Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki, Ernakulam and Thrissur retained at 2026-09-22T13:33:00+05:30
- Forecast rainfall in those orange-alert areas
- 115.6–204.4 mm over 24 hours (21 September forecast) retained at 2026-09-22T13:33:00+05:30
- Forecast isolated winds
- Up to 40 km/h with thunderstorms (21 September forecast) retained at 2026-09-22T13:33:00+05:30
What we knew when
- WorldsAid record entered the retained historical dataset.
- Six people swept away during sudden Kottapuzha River surge; search began preserved as a dated, source-linked observation. Source
- Five deaths confirmed; one person missing; joint search active; six districts under orange alert in the cited report preserved as a dated, source-linked observation. Source
- Body of the last missing person, 26-year-old Sajitha, recovered near Pookkottumpadam at about 12:30 IST; total confirmed deaths reached six and the search concluded. This is the recovery/status closure for the six people previously swept away, not a separate new event. preserved as a dated, source-linked observation. Source
Earlier figures are never replaced by later values; additional observations are retained as new ledger entries.
Provenance
This page renders the last verified WorldsAid cache directly in HTML. It does not treat generated summaries as primary evidence.
Cached dataset: worldsai_drup771.sql.gz
Verified
SHA-256 831e6a5f14ba8adab9496fd334890df2127e889cc7007d34b76cf44dae821436