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Cooum, Adyar in spate
T. Ramakrishnan
IN DEEP WATERS: A child, terrified by the floods, being carried to an Army rescue boat at Kotturpuram in Chennai on Sunday. Kotturpuram was the worst-affected residential colony, as the Adyar, swollen by the release of excess water from a reservoir, overflowed its banks.
CHENNAI: Though Chennai had a break from rain on Sunday, the city's two rivers, Cooum and Adyar, were in spate, forcing thousands of people living along their courses to flee their homes.
Advance warning about the floods was given. At least 75,000 persons were moved to 140 relief centres.
Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam, the city's observatories, recorded nil rain during the nine hour-period that ended at 5-30 p.m. on Sunday. But the heavy rain in the catchment area of the Chembarambakkam tank on the southwestern fringes of the city on Saturday night forced the authorities to increase the release of flood water into the Adyar river from about 10,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) to 12,000 cusecs. Similarly, the Cooum witnessed a flow of 13,000 cusecs as the river carried excess water from several tanks in Tiruvallur district.
The authorities carried out evacuation of people living along the Adyar, particularly in Kotturpuram.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said the flow in the two rivers was "carefully regulated."
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