Central team assesses flood damages in TN’s Tirunelveli district, Stalin distributes relief

TIRUNELVELI/THOOTHUKUDI: An inter-ministerial central team visited the inundated areas in Tirunelveli district on Thursday to assess the extent of damage caused due to the torrential rain on December 17 and 18 in the four southern districts of Tamil Nadu.

The team under National Disaster Management Authority (Operation and Communication) Advisor K P Singh visited the waterlogged area at the Tirunelveli junction bus stand and interacted with the officials.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin embarked on a visit to the southern districts on Thursday to personally take stock of the damage caused due to massive inundation and to console the affected people.

The chief minister also interacted with the residents at Anthoniyarpuram and later distributed relief to them.

After visiting the flood-hit areas in the district and also the neighbouring Tirunelveli, which was also the worst affected, the chief minister would interact with the respective district collectors.

According to Tirunelveli district collector K P Karthikeyan ahead of the rains, the administration shifted about 696 pregnant women to safety as a precaution. As many as 142 were admitted to various hospitals and of them, 91 pregnant women including 14 in Primary Health Centre, 13 in Government Hospital, 21 in Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital, and 43 in private hospitals, delivered babies in the last two days.

He said drinking water was being supplied through tankers to Kooniyur village where the drinking water infrastructure was affected due to flooding of the Tamirabarani river.

Several parts in the district remained cut off and a NDRF team provided relief assistance to the marooned in association with the Thoothukudi district administration.