27 Lives lost in rain-related incidents; hundreds of livestock dead, acres of farms submerged
power supply to most of the villages disrupted for over four days. Residents mark deepavali in darkness
eight of a family die in a flash flood. bodies recovered 2-3 kms from their houses
jaya despatches senior officials and ministers to oversee and expedite relief works in the district
Compensation to kin of deceased, farmers for crop damage after rainwater recedes
CUDDALORE:Rain fury has claimed 27 lives besides wrecking damage to standing crops and leaving hundreds of cattle dead in the district. Inundated by floods, many villages and low lying areas in towns are still waiting for waters to recede.
As per the preliminary assessment by officials on Wednesday, 4,800 houses got battered and crops in 20,154 hectares of agricultural lands were damaged. The figures are expected to go high.
Farmers’ association leader P Ravindran said “Paddy crop in 90,000 acres remains submerged in flood. Standing crops in Kumaratchi, Bhuvanagiri, Parangipettai, Kurinjipadi, Anna Gramam and Kammapuram blocks are still under water. In addition to this, maize crop in 62,000 acres in Nallur and Mangaluru blocks has been damaged. In the same area, cotton in 6,800 acres has been rendered useless. Banana plantation in 1,500 acres was completely destroyed. Dal in 1,000 acres of lands in Panruti block was also lost to the natural calamity.” All the villages in the Kanthakumaran and Chidambaram road are still marooned as residential areas are surrounded by flood water. “Paddy crop in my land is only 3 week old. it is submerged in water now. In our village alone, paddy crops in about 400 acres is spoiled,” bemoaned Kathiresan of Parivilagam.
People of Thunisiramedu, Nanjalur, Mandapam and many other villages are worried as the streets are still under flood waters. On the outskirts of Chidambaram like Omakulam and Koiyapillai Chavai, people are confiend to their homes, encircled by flood waters.
Kumar of Thunisiramedu said, “We did not even think of Deepavali celebration this year. There is no power for the past four days. For the past two days, we were in hip-deep flood in our streets. Now, it is knee-deep.” Many roads and small bridges were washed away in floods at several places in the district.
Traffic on Chennai-Kumbakonam main road was stopped as flood has submerged a ground-level bridge as the Paravanar was overflowing. Traffic on many other routes in the district was stopped due to the flood and damaged roads.
Water in Neyveli mines is being pumped out as it hindered mining works. NLC is generating 800 MW against its total capacity of 2990 MW. Victims of rain fury: Vasuki(35) and Kousalya(13) of Visur. Surender(23) of Semmedu.
Udhayakumari(65) of Kurinjipadi. Boomika(10), a 6th standard girl washed away in floods at Mannarsamy Kanni Odai, Balamurugan(40) of Theerthanagiri area who died in the flood.
Rain-related deaths were also reported at Srimushnam, Panruti, Alapakkam, Kumalangulam, Bhuvanagiri, Nanjalur and Kadavacheri areas.