5K displaced in Cauvery floods: Minister

Addressing reporters, the Minister said that recent deluge in Cauvery took a heavy toll in the state and people living in the districts adjoining the Cauvery basin were affected to a great deal. “Nearly, 186 villages in 43 divisions were completely affected in the flood and three persons, including a woman, had died. A total of 954 huts were damaged completely and 1,029 were damaged partially. Almost 7,167 acres of farm lands submerged in the flood,” said the Minister. 

He also said that Tamil Nadu government took active steps to minimise the loss caused by the flood. Interdepartmental zonal teams were formed to monitor the flood situation and to take immediate relief measures. 

The rescue and relief works were monitored by senior IAS officials at the district level with active coordination from the Collectors and the overall work was monitored by Commissioner of Revenue Administration K Sathyagopal. Apart from that the Ministers also monitored the flood situation in the state, he said.  

“Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami inspected the flood situation and relief camps in Erode and Namakkal districts on August 19. I went to Madurai and Kanniyakumari districts on August 18 and 19 respectively, to monitor the flood situation and the relief measures being undertaken,” said Udayakumar. He further said that among the 5,595 persons lodged in various relief camps, 3,321 were made to stay in 10 relief camps in Cuddalore district alone.

Now, the number of camps has come down from August 18, when there were 119 shelters housing 13,569 people. After the flood waters started receding, people had begun moving out of the camps. Following heavy inflows from Karnataka dams, water was simultaneously released from the state’s dams, including Mettur. This led to flooding along the banks of the Cauvery and Bhavani rivers. 

The water level at the Mettur dam continues to be above the full reservoir level as on Friday with a storage of 93,502 tmc at 120.02 feet. However, the inflow has substantially fallen from as high as two lakh cusecs a few days ago to 22,290 cusecs on Friday. The discharge is now 25,126 cusecs.