Two persons on a motorcycle were swept away in flash floods in South Pennar River when they were crossing a causeway at Pathakottai village near Shoolagiri in the district on Thursday night. While one of them swam to safety, a search is on to locate the other. The motorcycle was also washed away.
Hosur tahsildhar A. Hamid Ullah told The Hindu that M. Madhaiyan of Neruppukkuttai near Kelamangalam managed to swim to safety and fire and rescue services personnel are searching for his friend A. Mahendran of Thimmampatti near Palacode in Dharmapuri district. Collector T.P. Rajesh visited the spot.
Muthali, Moranapalli, Thorappalli villages along the river were the worst affected by flash floods. Children in these villages could not attend school over the last two days.
Owing to heavy rain in Karnataka in the past few days, flow into the Kelevarapalli Dam in Hosur rose from 1,450 cusecs (cubic feet per second) on Thursday to 1,680 cusecs on Friday morning.
With the level touching 40.84 feet on Thursday evening, as against the full reservoir level of 44 feet, officials of Water Resources Organisation of the Public Works Department released 1,800 cusecs and increased it to 2,600 cusecs around 10 p.m. This caused the flash floods in the river.
The release from this dam is increasing the level in the Krishnagiri Reservoir Project (KRP Dam), located downstream. Flow into the KRP Dam was 2,100 cusecs on Friday evening. Water would be released into South Pennar River if the level in the dam touched 51 ft (full reservoir level is 52 ft). The present storage in the dam is 1,238 mcft (million cubic feet), against the total capacity of 1666 mcft.
Authorities issued a flood warning in Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and Tiruvannamalai districts. People living along the banks of the river were asked to move to safer places. The district administration said medical and disaster management teams were ready to deal with any emergency.
