Monsoon Mayhem: Heavy rains across the State wipe off deficit

Though the overall average was 3.8 cm on Sunday, the figure belies the fury of the rains that some of the districts like Cuddalore and Thoothukudi have been experiencing since Saturday evening.

The Regional Meteorological Centre has issued a warning for fishermen, advising them not to venture into the sea due to the squally weather with wind speed likely to reach 40-50 kmph over South Arabian sea, Maldives area and Lakshadweep area off Kerala coast.

The copious rains in the last two days have sent up the storage at the four reservoirs supplying water to the city. The combined storage at the lakes was 3,473 million cubic feet (mcft) as on Sunday morning. Though this only about a third of their capacity (11,257 mcft), water managers will be happy to note that it is more than double of what was recorded on the same day last year.

The Poondi reservoir storage stood at 989 mcft as against its full capacity of 3,231 mcft while Chembarambakkam has 749 mcft (3,645 mcft). Red Hills has 1,639 mcft (3,300 mcft). Among the four, Cholaravaram has the least – 96 mcft as against the full storage of 1,081 mcft. Thanks to the heavy rain in catchment areas, Chembarambakkam and Poondi reservoirs have been received heave inflow of 1,182 cubic per second (cusecs) and 1,042 cusecs respectively.

The Veeranam lake in Cuddalore, from which the city draws drinking water, too, is brimming with water.

As part of monsoon preparedness, the city Corporation has kept boats in 109 places to rescue people from inundated areas. It has also kept ready 176 community halls and four common cooking halls. In addition, food for rescued people will be available from all the Amma Canteens, while 50 Amma Kudineer water dispensers will provide drinking water.

Forty-four medical teams and rescue teams have been kept on standby in 52 places across the State. The Corporation has also acquired 60 motor pumps to remove stagnant water from the 16 subways it is maintaining, besides six subways maintained by the Highways department. In addition, 570 pumps, 130 generators, 371 chainsaws to cut fallen trees, and six pole pruners have been kept ready.

In Tirunelveli, 30 people were taken to a relief centre in the city after their houses were inundated. People from eight low lying areas were also provided alternative accommodation. Temporary relief centres have been kept ready in all taluks across the district. Though water level was up considerably in major dams after the downpour, the situation is manageable, said district Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish. Surplus water of 16,000 cusecs was released from Papanasam and Servalar dams into Tamirabarani river on Saturday. But late on Sunday, it has been reduced to 4,800 cusecs, she said.

Heavy rain in parts of Ramanathapuram has damaged 17 houses. Few trees there were uprooted, resulting in damages to 25 electricity poles. In all, 327 people were taken to five relief centres set up at at Tirupullani, Thangachimadam, Periyapattinam and in Pathakottai in Rameswaram and Keelakarai taluks.

District collector K Veera Raghava Rao has declared holiday for schools as a precautionarymeasure.