Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai on Wednesday experienced good rainfall, which has improved the groundwater table after a gap of two years. The rain that started in the evening turned incessant and it continued till 2 a.m. on Thursday.
While the areas closer to the Western Ghats received insignificant rainfall, taluks away from the hills were blessed with good rainfall on Wednesday. Though the sky remained overcast, there was no significant rain on Thursday. The rain that started at 4.15 p.m. lasted only for about 10 minutes.
However, in Tirunelveli, rainwater inundated a few low-lying areas and entered houses.
Water stagnated in several areas such as Anna Nagar, Armed Reserve Police Grounds, Veeramanickapuram, Gypsy Colony in Pettai and Mahizhvannanathapuram.
City Engineer and Commissioner (in-charge) V. Narayanan Nair, who chaired a meeting at the Corporation to review the situation even as the intense shower started lashing the city, commenced the work to drain stagnant water by deploying good number of personnel in various parts of Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai since 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
Gadgets submerged
Business establishments were also not spared. Rainwater gushed into a computer centre, being run by a team of five women near Rottikadai bus stop in Pettai. As the owners of nearby shops alerted Poonkodi, one of the partners, she rushed to the spot after alerting TANGEDCO personnel to stop power supply to the building.
When she opened the door of the computer centre, hip-deep water had badly damaged computers and other peripherals. Since the stagnant rainwater had submerged the electronic gadgets, Ms. Poonkodi and her partners Fatima, Vijaya Parvathi, Inbaselvi and Rajeshwari have reportedly suffered a heavy loss.
While two of the five partners of this small venture are widows, another one is a divorcee.
“We started this business nine years ago after pledging our gold jewellery in the bank to get loans. Rainwater has now damaged three copiers, two printers, a photo printer, a scanner and six computers. New computers kept in boxes and on tables cannot be used again,” said Ms. Poonkodi.
