In a release, Anbumani Ramadoss said the normal practice of issuing three flood warnings before releasing water as followed in Mettur and Vaigai dams was not followed by the PWD. On December 1, the Chennai collector in a release warned that upto 7500 cubic feet of water would be released from Chembarambakkam, but the release increased to 10,000 cubic feet per second before the matter reached the press. Before the news could be put out it increased to 34,000 cubic feet. Though this was the official figure, Anbumani said nearly 60,000 cubic feet was released and when rain water from other areas flowed into the Adyar, it totalled nearly 1 lakh cubic feet water which affected residents on the banks.