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We could not get a wink of sleep on Saturday night due to mosquitoes, says woman at town hall relief centre in Mangaluru

• Posted on June 15, 2025

With a brief break in the incessant rain on Sunday, Sarita, a resident near Krishna Bhajana Mandira in Attavar, quickly moved out of the relief centre, Mini Town Hall, where she had been staying with her two children and elderly mother, Susheela, since Saturday evening. “We arrived at the relief centre wearing only the clothes on our backs,” Sarita recalled.

On Sunday, however, she and her classmate Sapna took an autorickshaw to her house. “Though the water receded by then, the floor of the house became slippery due to the accumulation of rain sludge. The overhead fan had collapsed. We need the assistance of officials to get the house cleaned and to move in,” she said.

Sarita brought a few spare sets of clothes for her children and mother, including her daughter’s school uniform, when she returned to the centre on Sunday. Her daughter, Diya, is a Class 6 student at a government school in Attavar. Sarita also brought her mother’s medicines and a mobile charger.

Seventy-year-old Saraswati, a resident of Vaidyanatha Nagar in Attavar, has also been staying in the relief centre since Saturday.

The two families were shifted to the relief centre after floodwater from the nearby ‘raja kaluve’ entered their houses due to heavy rains on Saturday afternoon.

Sarita said she observed water slowly seeping into her house on Saturday afternoon. She was in the house with her son Nihan, while her mother went to pick up her daughter from Bharathnatyam class, when suddenly the water level rose to her waist level, she recalled. “At the time we were rescued, the water level outside our house was at my neck level.”

She asked her mother to wait at the Krishna Bhajan Mandira with her daughter, and she came to the Mandira with her son. Then, the family reached the relief centre on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, Saraswati, who lives alone in an old house near a storm-water drain, was approached by an official from Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) when rainwater entered her house. She was shifted from her house on a boat and brought to the relief centre.

At the centre, MCC provided them with dinner, carpets and bed sheets. “But we could not get a wink of sleep because of the mosquitoes here,” Sarita said.

On Sunday morning, Town Hall in-charge Harish provided them with breakfast and tea and also arranged mosquito nets at the centre.

Earlier, it was in the early hours of May 29, 2025, that water entered Sarita’s house following a heavy downpour. Then the family stayed for a couple of days in the home of their relatives. “When we returned, there was a lot of muck. I alone managed to clear it,” Sarita said, as she showed the scars on her feet that were caused by the long hours of work on the muddy floor.

Sarita and Saraswati seek assistance after floodwater enters their homes in Attavar, Mangaluru, during heavy rains. | Source: The Hindu

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