Chennai: Three people have died in recent flood related incidents in Tamil Nadu, while 7,167 acres of standing crops were submerged and 5,595 people have been moved to relief camps, state revenue minister RB Udhaya Kumar said.
“Two men and a woman have died, 186 villages were affected, 954 huts were fully damaged, 1,029 huts partially damaged and 7,167 acres of standing crops were submerged,” the minister told reporters here on Friday.
He said there were 775 children among the 5,595 people in the 20 government relief centres in Erode, Thanjavur, Tiruchiry, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore districts. With floodwaters receding, people have started to move out of the camps since August 18, when there were as many as 119 shelters housing 13,569 people, the minister said.
Heavy inflows from Karnataka dams led to the simultaneous release from TN's dams, including Mettur, which caused the flooding in the districts along the banks of Cauvery and Bhavani rivers, including Tiruchirappalli, Erode and Namakkal.
The Mettur dam level reached the 'full reservoir level' of 120 ft for the first time this year on July 23 due to higher realisation from Karnataka's Krishnaraja Sagar and Kabini dams, for the second time on August 11 and the third time on August 22. The Mettur level continues to be above FRL as of Friday at 120.02 ft holding a storage of 93,502 tmc ft.
The inflow has, however, fallen substantially from as high as two lakh cusecs a few days ago to 22,290 cusecs now, while the discharge stood at about 25,126 cusecs.
On August 19, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had inspected the flood-hit areas and assured compensation for crop loss and permanent houses for the affected people. Revenue minister Udhaya Kumar inspected Madurai and Kanyakumari districts on August 18 and 19 respectively.
