Chennai sinks as dams surplus
34,000 people rescued in Kanchi district; monsoon toll now 178
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-11-18 05:22 GMT
Chennai: The toll in rain-related incidents across Tamil Nadu touched 178 with more deaths reported from northern districts with the death count in Cuddalore alone crossing 50 and Kancheepuram reporting 23 deaths. On Tuesday, more than 12 deaths were reported from Villupuram, Vellore, Theni annd Kanchipuram districts in which most of the deaths were due to electrocution, wall collapse and drowning. In Theni, a woman died from a lightning strike, police sources said.
On a dry Tuesday, Chennai was limping back towards normalcy. The situation in low-lying areas was, however, terrible with the surplus water from the dams in Poondi reservoir and Chembarambakkam Lake inundating vast stretches of the city’s suburbs in the south, north and west. Residents of Saidapet, Velachery, Madipakkam, Tambaram and Thiruneermalai bore the brunt of waterlogging even as the underperforming drainage network led to several areas being choked with stagnant water. Areas like Choolai, Pattalam, Vysarpadi, Perambur, Otteri and Parrys suffered severe drainage blocks.
There was a silver lining in the weather forecast with area cyclone warning centre director S R Ramanan saying that the well marked low pressure area is likely to dissipate in a day or two and the rain would reduce in Tamil Nadu. Also, Kancheepuram district collector R Gajalakshmi said the outflow from Chembarambakkam reservoir, which was 18,000 cusecs, had fallen below 7,500 cusecs by Tuesday night.
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