The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Firemen, police personnel get their act together

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Firemen, police personnel get their act together

K. Manikandan

Rescue stranded people and move them to safe places

Photo: A.Muralitharan

NO JOY RIDE: Residents of Srinivasa Nagar of Ullagaram-Puzhuthivakkam Municipality being taken to safer locations by Neelankarai fishermen on Friday . —

TAMBARAM: On Friday, when rain were not as sharp as in the past three days, the focus of government machinery was on rescuing people stranded in marooned residential areas to accommodate them in marriage and community halls and to serve them food.

For the 24-hours ending 6 a.m. on Friday, the rainfall recorded in Tambaram was 127 mm, the highest since the monsoon set in. . But problems persisted in the southern suburbs, as Thursday evening’s heavy rain began to have its effect late in the night and Friday morning.

CTO Colony in West Tambaram, Srinivasa Nagar in Ullagaram-Puzhuthivakkam Municipality, Ram Nagar and Kubera Nagar in Madipakkam Village Panchayat limits, Thillaiganga Nagar in Alandur Municipality, M.G.R. Nagar and Ambedkar Nagar in Nandambakkam Town Panchayat were the worst affected .

500 persons rescued

Firemen deployed inflated rubber boats in CTO Colony, Tambaram and Ram Nagar, Kubera Nagar and Srinivasa Nagar. In these three places, police and firemen rescued close to 500 people, V.Varadharaju, Deputy Commissioner of Police, St. Thomas Mount, told The Hindu.

Priya Ravichandran, Divisional Fire Officer, South Chennai, said nearly 75 personnel from 12 fire stations were on duty in the affected areas coming under her jurisdiction. In addition to boats pressed into service by firemen and police, about a dozen boats had come from fishing hamlets along East Coast Road. Fishermen had come all the way from Kovalam near Mamallapuram, transporting the boat in a lorry.

Girija, a resident of Ram Nagar, said she had a harrowing experience as water entered her house and when the level began to increase, she had to take refuge in a small room in the first floor of her house along with her two children. “I was scared for my two young children. I made several calls but they all reached nowhere. I was desperate for help,” Ms. Girija said.

She said she was yet to give even a glass of milk to her children and her relatives were unable to come to her help due to chest-deep water in Ram Nagar. It was not before noon on Friday that she was brought to safety in a rubber boat of the Fire Department. She said she would be staying in a relative’s flat in Velachery until the water level receded. S.Chellaih, a software employee and a resident of Srinivasa Nagar, was brought to safety in a boat by fishermen from Kovalam and was dropped at the Velachery bus stop. Along with his mother, wife and their son, he would stay in a relative’s house in Puducherry and return only after the water level came down, he said.

K.Gopal, Commissioner of Town Panchayats, led a team of officials and visited the flood-affected areas in Nandambakkam, Mangadu, Kunrathur, Chitlapakkam and Sembakkam. Nearly 2,000 people in the Nandambakkam Town Panchayat limits and living under the bridge over the Adyar river were evacuated and accommodated in private marriage halls and government community halls.

In Sembakkam 200 people living in Rajakilpakkam and Kamarajapuram were accommodated in the community hall on the town panchayat premises. Officials said breakfast and dinner were arranged for them.

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