Surging Amaravathi inundates villages in Erode

The current spell of heavy rain has brought extensive damage to the infrastructure, claimed the life of a farmer, inundated several villages in different parts of the district, and had left a daily wage labourer dead as he was washed away by the Amaravathi River.

Though the district received continuous rain for the last 10 days, the overnight heavy downpour in Karur, K.Paramathi and Aravakurichi on Wednesday forced a large number of residents, particularly women, elderly and children of various areas of Karur and Thanthoni, to move to safer areas. The five-hour rain between 1 am and 5 pm caused inundation in many low-lying areas. Since rainwater entered into many of the residential colonies, including Sukkaliyur, Karuppampalayam, and Kurinchi Nagar, the residents, who were fast asleep, rushed out of their homes and moved to safer places.

There are reports that almost all revenue villages in Karur, Thanthoni, Aravakurichi, and K.Paramathi blocks have been inundated due to the water gushing out from rural tanks and jungle streams. A holiday had been declared for government and private schools on Wednesday.

More than 200 people living at Pasupathipalayam were evacuated by the district administration due to the heavy discharge in the Amaravathi River. They were provided shelter in a private marriage hall. The strong water current in the river washed away the temporary causeway across the Amaravathi River for the second time in days. Maratchi Reddiar (70) of Ponnampatty near Porunthalur was killed on the spot after being struck by lightning. Ramesh (32) and Nandakumar (42) also suffered severe injuries in the incident that occurred on Wednesday morning when they were returning from a field.

Similarly, M.Palanivel (55) of Thottiyam, who came to Nagampalli to meet his daughter, was washed away in the Amaravathi when he tried to cross the river. He reportedly entered the water despite warning from locals.

Collector S.Jayandhi, who visited various parts of the district to oversee flood relief and restoration works, told

The Hindu that though the situation was grim in some places, it had been brought under control. Priority was to restore normalcy in the affected places. Though reports suggest that water had started receding at various places, high alert had been sounded due to forecast of further rain and heavy inflow in the Amaravathi River and jungle streams, the Collector said.

The entire inflow in the Amaravathi and Noyyal rivers has been let into the Cauvery. About 30,000 cusecs of water was realised at the Kattalai barrage in the Cauvery.