Houses collapse, traffic pile-up in Western districts

COIMBATORE: Heavy rains lashed Western districts resulting in incidents of house collapses, traffic pile-ups and tree falls in hill regions on Saturday.

As many as eight houses collapsed in The Nilgiris, however none were injured. Officials said that four houses collapsed in Coonoor, one each in Pandalur and Kotagiri and two others in Ooty due to continuous rains on Saturday. Tree falls were reported on a few roads causing disruption to vehicle movement. An NDRF team has been stationed in the hill district to carry out rescue operations during emergencies.

In Coimbatore, a 17-year-old girl, studying in college suffered severe injuries after a damp mud walled house collapsed during the day. Police said Nivetha, residing with her mother and brother at Pommanpalayam in Vadavalli was washing vessels in the asbestos roofed bathroom, when walls of an abandoned mud house, adjoining her house collapsed. On hearing her loud cries, the other family members rescued and rushed her to a Primary Health Centre in Kalveerampalayam and then to Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital.

Meanwhile, Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji, who inspected the works to pump out stagnated water on ‘Lanka Corner’ locality in Coimbatore, said that despite the district receiving heavy downpour, water didn’t stagnate in majority of areas during the monsoon. “It was because all the flooded areas were identified and preventive measures were taken. To prevent stagnation, 32 canals for 128 km were desilted at Rs 2.50 crore in the district. Similarly, storm water drains were desilted at Rs 5.06 crore for 273 kms,” he added.

In Erode, flood alert continues as discharge from Bhavani Sagar Dam has been increased to 5,000 cusecs. The entire surplus water from the dam, which reached its brim at 104.50 ft as against its full reservoir capacity of 105 ft, has been released causing heavy flooding in Bhavani River.