Haliyal: Following heavy rain that has been lashing Haliyal taluk for the last three days, several houses collapsed and several damaged in Haliyal town and surrounding rural areas on Sunday early morning.

Haliyal taluk received 86.2 mm rain on Sunday alone and till now, it has received a total rainfall of 1,879.4 mm, officials said.

Due to continuous rain, the maize brought to the APMC got drenched in the rain causing huge losses. This has left the farmers worried. For the last two weeks, maize growers were getting the produce and drying it under the sun in the APMC premises. After cleaning it, they were packing it in bags for sale. Though farmers tried hard to protect the bags with maize by covering the open space with tin sheets, water began stagnating in the APMC premise.