CUDDALORE: It’s raining woes for Cuddalore district, with the worst affected being Visur village near Panruti. Ten houses have been razed and another 50 damaged badly as it poured heavily. Last Monday, the entire village was flooded as water rose up to 7 ft.
The village, located on either side of Pappan Vellavari canal, got flooded after an unexpected breach caused by the heavy downpour. Entire agricultural lands of the village got covered with layers of red soil brought by the floods. Many residents lost their cattle and chicken to flood. People also lost their belongings such as money, jewels, land documents, ration cards and other important papers to flood. Students lost their books and laptops.
The agony of the village residents is such that all they need immediately is adequate compensation from the government.
Affected people have been taking shelter in the government school building, where food packets are being distributed to them.
Jothilakshmi, a resident of the village, was seen carrying a newly-bought stove in one hand and food served by the government in another.
“I went to the nearby Senthanadu to buy this new kerosene stove. This is to prepare coffee or tea for my family. As my house was entirely damaged in the floods, I have to use this stove now,” she said.
Jothilakshmi lost two of her close relatives to the calamity.
Another rain-affected, Palaniammal pointed to a spot and said that her house was situated there before the floods ravaged. “The sudden floods took away my house. You cannot even find wreckages there. Everything has gone with the water,” she said, with tears welling in her eyes.
Ramya (21), a seven-month pregnant woman, underwent untold suffering when the flood water enveloped the village. “There was hip-deep water in my house. As the water level increased, I moved to another house in my street. Again, I had to move to the terrace of a building, where I waited for several hours with fear.”
Krishnaveni (19) and her uncle Vivekanandan were seen cleaning their house filled with plenty of red soil. “We have been removing the soil for the past four days. But still we have not finished the work. From this, one could imagine the amount of soil settled in our house,” Krishnaveni said.
“People cannot live in damaged houses. So they have to demolish those houses and reconstruct new ones. Many newly built houses were also destroyed by the flood,” another resident Amutha said.