Thousands of military personnel and social activists are engaged in a major operation of supplying food, water and blankets to thousands trapped in water-logged neighbourhoods – and rescuing the still marooned.
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Meanwhile, DMK president M Karunanidhi, who had asked his supporters to contribute towards flood relief, said the aid could be deposited at the party headquarters Anna Arivalayam here.
A total of 269 people are now known to have died in floods in Tamil Nadu state since last month.
In this Friday, Dec. 4, 2015 photo, a patient is shifted to an ambulance after the hospital she was being treated in had to be shut down because of power failure and being inundated with floodwaters in Chennai, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
“Rumours of surplus water being released are also a cause of serious worry”, Revathi Vasan, of West Mambalam, told IANS.
The central government had asked all the banks to restore banking services in affected areas as early as possible and provide ATM and other services to the people round the clock.
The government-run Royapettah Hospital and Sri Ramachandra Hospitals also got patients from the hospitals affected by floods and power cuts.
Several voluntary organisations and NGOs supplied food, water bottles and blankets in flood-hit areas.
In a letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa on Saturday, Singapore Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan said he was saddened by the hundreds of lives lost and disrupted due to the severe flooding in South India, Channel News Asia reported.
The Tamil Nadu public works department said it did issue warnings, but the information apparently did not reach the public because of a breakdown in media and phone communications. A meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) was held here under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha to review the flood situation in the state and take stock of the relief measures being done by multiple agencies like NDRF and army.
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Railway services resumed partially, with a few trains running from Chennai’s main train station. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the city this week he announced 10 million Indian rupees ($150,000) of extra assistance for relief operations.
