Describing as complex the flood situation in the city and suburbs following the latest heavy downpour on Thursday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Sunday said the situation would improve by Monday if there was no further rain on Sunday in the catchment areas.
After reviewing the flood situation in the city and neighbouring Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts, she said relief operations were being under taken on a war-footing and around 1.75 lakh people, including 75,000 from the city, had been evacuated and sheltered in relief centres.
The high flow in Cooum river, which caused flooding of many city localities on Saturday in the wake of release of excess water from Poondi Reservoir, had come down to 13,000 cusecs from 14,000 cusecs following corresponding reduction in the inflow into the dam, she said adding further reduction can be expected by Monday.
However, as the Adayar river, which is also in spate following release of excess water from Chembarambakkam Lake, inundating southern parts of the city continued to be high on Sunday at 12,000 cusecs due to heavy rainfall in Sriperumbudur area, the situation was being monitored closely.
Giving an overview of the flood situation, she said as all the lakes and reservoirs adjoining the city were already full following the earlier downpours, the latest spell with a record rainfall of 28 cms at Meenambakkam recorded on December two had resulted in a complex situation with the entire precipitation in the huge catchment area having no place to go. "This has resulted in heavy flooding of the entire Chennai city."
{{/usCountry}}Giving an overview of the flood situation, she said as all the lakes and reservoirs adjoining the city were already full following the earlier downpours, the latest spell with a record rainfall of 28 cms at Meenambakkam recorded on December two had resulted in a complex situation with the entire precipitation in the huge catchment area having no place to go. "This has resulted in heavy flooding of the entire Chennai city."
{{/usCountry}}"I am ensuring that the relief operations are proceeding on a war-footing. With the abatement of rain, full normalcy will return immediately".
Jayalalithaa said she had directed Rural Industries Minisver B Valarmathi and Handlooms and Textiles Minister V Somasundaram to supervise relief operations in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts respectively.
Jayalalithaa said flood waters had drained quickly in most parts of the city with the river systems and the major drains functioning "extremely well".
She said with the Chembarambakkam Late, which rapidly filled up, continuing to record inflows of more than 10,000 cusecs with a peak of 15,000 cusecs, the surplus water had to be released into Adayar river, which has a major catchment adjoining the city and also receives the city's drainage.
She said all residents in low lying areas were warned through the public address system and mass media, including radio and television, about the flood. As many as 45,000 people were evacuated from the Adyar river banks.
"Judicious action to save the city was taken preventing the flow from getting fully into Cooum river. Thus the flow in the Cooum river was controlled to a maxmimum of less than 14,000 cusecs. This prevented flooding all along the banks of the Cooum, which traverses through the city.
In Tiruvallur district, all lakes had filled up and the heavy rainfall had resulted in breaches to about 35 tanks which were being attended. In all 73 relief centres had been set up and 50,000 people were being provided food on Sunday, Jayalalithaa said in Kancheepuram district, more than 50,000 people had been evacuated from vulnerable areas and 52 relief centres had been established.
On the situation in Velacherry in south Chennai, one of the worst affected locality, she said the water was beginning to recede rapidly and normalcy would return quickly adding she had deputed special teams to ensure quick drainage and relief.
She said in the city 140 relief centres were functioning and five lakh food packets were being distributed to those sheltered.
She also said the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board which had disconnected power supply in vulnerable areas as a precautionary measure as soon as the flooding commenced, restored electricity in most of the areas on Sunday.
Jaya announces solatium
Jayalalithaa on Sunday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 each to the families of 36 persons, including four women, who died in rain-related incidents in the last week of November.
Condoling the deaths, in a statement in Chennai she said the amount would be released from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund.
While 33 persons had drowned in different locations, three were passengers of the bus which capsized at Sanaveli in Ramanathapuram district.