Newsroom24x7 Desk
Chennai : Non-stop downpour plunged entire state of Tamil Nadu into deep water-troubles, as incessant rainfall in most parts of Tamil Nadu region resulted in cutting off road connectivity, damaging functional roads, disrupting commuting and bringing railways to a disruptive halt at critical junctions. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been working overtime and rescued more than a thousands of stranded people from the sensitive areas which have immersed under heavy stagnation of water, resulting in an almost flood-like situation within the land-locked areas of the state.
Around 1400 people have been rescued by the NDRF across the entire state of Tamil Nadu. NDRF Director General OP Singh informed that that 12 teams have been deployed in areas with flood-like situation, and the NDRF team members have successfully retrieved more than 2500 people from such inundated areas. The authorities in Tamil Nadu further updated that nearly 5,300 people have been rescued, from far end of water logged areas. Although some places have become severely inundated in water, with barely some safe spots for people to hold on to and perch upon, the rescue teams have been able to reach there. Such regions have been kept under first rescue-radar and NDRF along with local assistance teams are working overtime to provide relief and evacuation for the stranded Tamil Nadu citizens.
To shelter the evacuated, dozens of relief camps have been set up on a very urgent makeshift basis. These shelter camps have been able to assist in providing some urgent relief to the stranded. People have not been able to move out with many belongings as water forced them to just walk away with very bare essentials. The shelter camps are providing rest and lodge facilities to the bare minimum basic requirements, and has been able to restore some amount of peace to the shelterless. Food being another basic requirement, it is too being catered by administration which has come into full swing and started distributing thousands of food packets to the affected people. Food and water facilities have sprung into full swing action, especially in those areas where shelter camps have been set up.
People who have self-evacuated from their inundated premises are also reaching to the nearby shelter camps and getting accommodated in the camps, with food and shelter. Services from Indian Air Force (IAF) wing has also shown prompt assistance, by airlifting deeply stranded, non-approachable citizens in remote areas. The IAF airlifted 22 people, including 12 infants, from rainwater-inundated parts of Chennai on Monday. The army has also involved its team in the evacuation process and personnel from the force are working together in co-ordination with other rescue teams and bringing out stranded people from unapproachable areas. Places which are deep in water have been converted to temporary water bodies, and vehicular movement being totally incapacitated, waterway mechanisms have come into ready use there. The extreme conditions and water filled lanes have forced the rescue teams to provide boats for transport, and people themselves are either wading, swimming out or taking a boat ride on the erstwhile roads of the state for rescue measures. People heve been forced at several places to resort to boats as means of transport.
Administration had taken precautionary measure early days and declared all educational institutions to shut down, which helped a long way in this inundation. Schools and colleges were shut down in parts of Tamil Nadu as heavy rains set off by the northeast monsoon battered the southern state and seaside areas in neighboring Andhra Pradesh.
Meteorological Department had earlier predicted these heavy rains in Tamil Nadu as the cyclone had not yet waned down and was still active near the coastal region of Tamil Nadu which faces Sri Lanka. Chief minister J Jayalalithaa reviewed the situation in her rain-hit RK Nagar constituency in Chennai and announced Rs 500 crore for relief and rehabilitation. CM also took cognizance of the entire situation and has been taking regular updates from authorities, insisting and monitoring speedy rescue efforts.
