More than 60 houses flooded in Erode

COIMBATORE: After a long dry spell, moderate to heavy rains poured in the Western region for the past two days.

In Erode, water entered more than 60 houses in Ellapalayam following a breach in ‘Rama Goundan Valasu’ lake near Kavundapadi on Monday night. Due to flooding, the villagers were forced to vacate their houses to take shelter on the premises of a temple in the neighbourhood.

On receiving information, multiple teams of fire service personnel, police and revenue department staff arrived and carried out rescue efforts. They searched in houses to look if anyone was stranded inside the flooded houses to rescue them.

Heavy floods from the breached lake also washed away vast portions of a low-level bridge on the Poolapalayam- Ayymapalayam Road. Vehicles on the stretch were therefore diverted. The Public Works Department (PWD) staff took up efforts to plug the breach in the water body.

Also, more than 20 houses were flooded in Poolapalayam and the families were sheltered in schools. Farmers claimed that large tracks of their standing crops were damaged in the heavy rains that poured out through the night.

Meanwhile, Erode Collector H Krishnanunni inspected the damaged roads and bridges. He directed authorities to speed up restoration works.

The Collector also asked Corporation authorities to ensure that water from flooded houses is removed at the earliest and initiate permanent measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Similarly, Coimbatore and Tirupur districts also witnessed heavy rains on Tuesday evening.