Tamil Nadu - Cuddalore   

Flood situation grim in Cuddalore

Special Correspondent

All five rivers in spate; road, rail traffic hit One lakh people have been marooned by the rising floodwaters. Road traffic on the Chennai-Tiruchi highway was disrupted after flooding of the road at Seplanatham and Eraiyur

CUDDALORE: The flood situation in Cuddalore district turned grim on Thursday, with all the five rivers running through the district and other water sources overflowing, following incessant rain and discharge from the Sathanur and Gomukhi dams.

According to a conservative estimate, one lakh people have been marooned and thousands stranded. Road traffic and train movement were affected, compounding commuters' misery.

The official machinery has been fully geared up, and the police force too has been put on alert. As the Gedilam, the Pennaiyar, and the Paravanar were in spate, the police were going around alerting the people living along the banks to move to safer places, and not to return to their homes until the situation improved.

Traffic disrupted

Road traffic on the Chennai-Tiruchi highway was disrupted after flooding of the road at two points— i.e, Seplanatham and Eraiyur. The strong current flowing across the road at Pallapattu between Panruti and Koliyanur snapped the road link with Villupuram.

Similarly, traffic on the Vriddhachalam-Andimadam, Vriddhachalam-Ulundurpet, Chidambaram-Sethiathope, and Sethiathope-Kumbakonam stretches was dislocated.

As a result of the discharge of water from the Sathanur dam, the swollen Pennaiyar had submerged the A.K.Kuchipalayam causeway, affecting the Chennai-Thanjavur traffic. The Pennaiyar breached at Melkumaramangalam near Panruti, inundating three villages, and farm land.

At Vriddhachalam, the Manimuktha had inundated Manavalanallur.

The affected people have been accommodated in a government school and in the Kolanjiappar temple. School, hostel and residential colonies at Nallur remained waterlogged.

Residential colonies such as Pazhamalai Nagar, Ayiyar Madam, Enathimangalam, and Bridhavan Nagar, located on the banks of the river, bore the brunt of the floods, and the people have been provided shelter at Bhoothamur school and Kolanjiappar Government Arts College.

At Sethiathope about 1,000 houses were damaged, including Ayipettai (500 houses), Ragavendra Nagar (100) and Thillainagar (150).

About 25 persons of Allur, near Sethiathope, were marooned, and efforts were on to rescue them.

The Vellar, carrying about 1 lakh cusecs of water from the Gomughi dam too caused havoc at Sathikudi, Dadampettai, Orathur and damaged the Bhuvanagiri bridge.

The Veeranam tank was getting an inflow of over 10,000 cusecs from the Karuvattu Odai and Sengal Odai. About 8,000 cusecs of water was released from the tank flooding 30 downstream villages.

Officials had fanned out to affected places, and Fire Service and Rescue personnel too were helping shift the people to safer places.

Education Minister, C.Ve.Shanmugham inspected the flood situation in the Veeranam area and distributed food packets.

The Collector Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Deputy Inspector General of Police Vijay Arora, Superintendent of Police S. Panneerselvam, and other officials are supervising relief measures.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Flood situation grim in Cuddalore

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu