VELLORE: Four persons died after the walls caved in due to heavy rains in the district on Monday.
According to officials, the victims have been identified as Amutha (59), wife of Ponnusamy of Thenkadapanthangal village in Wallajah block, Preethi (15), a school student of Ariyur village in Vellore taluk, Sengamanthiri (65), of Ichipudur village in Arakonam taluk and Kiliammal of Karapattu in Ambur taluk.
Also two animals have died due to rains. A total of 220 houses have reportedly been damaged in the rain.
Over 800 Rescued
While the officials attached to various departments are focused on providing relief materials to the rain-battered district, the fire and rescue service personnel have been silently rescuing people and animals stranded from water-logged areas.
Deputy director of fire and rescue services (north western region) Meenakshi Vijayakumar said that since November 12, over 800 people have been rescued by the department personnel in the region that comprises of Vellore, Tiruvannmalai, Thiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts. She said in addition to this 220 animals have been rescued.
Meenakshi said a team of 165 personnel with eight boats have been involved in the rescue operations in the district, she added.
On Monday, the department personnel have rescued 537 people, of them 232 were men, 241 women and 64 children, and 13 animals from the four districts. The department had received 20 rescue calls which were immediately attended to, she added.
Meanwhile, Vellore and its surrounding hills received around 13 cm of rain on Sunday. The low lying areas such as Dideer Nagar and other nearby localities were flooded and some of the locals took initiatives to move stranded people to safer places by using local resources such as inflated tyre tube. Later, the affected people received food and other relief materials from the corporation.
In Pallikonda, the rainwater from the nearby hills drained into the two tributaries of Palar, namely Agaram and Peyar. While the Pallikonda tank got filled up in five hours, the excess water was diverted to fill the nearby seven tanks.
Meanwhile,there was an agitation by residents of Pudumai Nagar when water entered their houses. Local Minister K C Veeramani and Anaikattu MLA M Kalaiarasu who rushed to the spot pacified the agitators before the water was diverted to the river. The minister also gave away relief materials to the residents who were moved to safer locations in the Pallikonda town.
According to the officials in the met department, Arakonam received the highest rainfall of 19 cm on Sunday, followed by Sholinghur-15 cm, Arcot and kaveripakkam-14 cm, Alangayam-10 cm, Gudiyattam and Melalathur-8 cm, Wallajah-6 cm Ambur-7 cm and Tirupattur-4 cm.