Flood altert in Coimbatore
Torrential rain in Kerala and in the Western Ghats resulted in heavy inflow into River Noyyal, forcing the revenue administration to sound a flood alert. The revenue authorities have already asked the Village Administrative Officers (VAOs) to sound flood alert in villages along the banks by tom-tomming.According to reports reaching the district headquarters, the catchments of Siruvani received 140 mm rainfall while the foot hills recorded 80 mm. The storage in the reservoir had risen to 872.5 mts as against the full storage of 878.5 mts. The heavy rain in Western Ghats has resulted in wild streams bringing in a copious inflow of 2,500 cusecs.People living in low-lying areas have been asked to move to safer places with their belongings and cattle. The Coimbatore South Tashildar V. Subramanian and Sub-Divisional Officer (Noyyal) of the Public Works Department (Water Resource Organisation), P. Kandasamy visited the banks along Noyyal.The situation is under close watch. A flood control room has been set up the Taluk office, would function round the clock and people could contact phone number 95-422-2214225.The authorities have directed the Public Works Department, Fire and Rescue Services personnel, local bodies, Highways Department, Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and police to remain in a state of readiness. Uprooting of trees resulting in disruption in power supply was also reported.
The rain in Maharastra and waterlogging in majority of the areas in Mumbai led to the delayed operation of Indian flight IC 657 from New Delhi to Kozhikkode via Mumbai and Coimbatore.The flight scheduled to arrive Coimbatore at 11.05 hours and depart for Kozhikkode at 11.45 hours arrived only at 4.15 p.m. The Indian authorities originally planned to re-route the flight to Kozhikkode to Mumbai skipping Coimbatore.However, the flight remained grounded at the Coimbatore Airport till 07.45 p.m. owing to a technical snag. Uncertainty loomed large on the flight schedule.The passengers bound for Kozhikkode in the onward direction and towards Mumbai and New Delhi in the return direction were stranded. Similarly, the AAI authorities said that the Mumbai-Coimbatore-Mumbai flights of Air Deccan (DN 615/616) and Jet Airways 9W 414/413 were also cancelled on Saturday.
Because of the rain in Kerala, a number of trains towards Chennai, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and North India via Coimbatore were delayed by one to six hours. The officials at the Ukkadam bus stand also reported delayed operation of inter-State buses between Tamil Nadu and Kerala to destinations such as Thrissur, Palakkad and Guruvayoor.A wall collapse due dampness caused by rain at Ambedkar Nagar in Madukkarai area on Friday night resulted in injuries to three children namely Jothimani (13), Chitthara (5) and Balaji (10). Madukkarai police are investigating.
