Around 3,000 persons shifted to relief camps from three districts

Residents from northern Tamil Nadu districts moved to relief camps ahead of Cyclone Fengal landfall, minimal damage reported.

As the State’s northern districts got ready to face landfall of Cyclone Fengal on Saturday, around 3,000 residents from Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu districts were moved to relief camps. 

Tiruvallur Collector T. Prabhushankar said that they focused on shifting Irula and other tribal community families to safe locations. “We wanted to shift vulnerable families since we experienced mild to heavy rainfall throughout the district. We didn’t want them to remain in their homes. All our rain gauges recorded over 10 cm of rainfall in the 12 hour period from 6 a.m. on Saturday,” he said. 

At Kancheepuram, District Collector Kalaiselvi Mohan, who visited the Chembarambakkam lake, along with IAS officer K. S. Kandasamy, who was in charge of the district, said that the rainfall had pushed water storage in the lake to 19 feet. “In just one day, the level has gone up by half a foot.”

“Even though the water flow in the Adyar River is good, there was not much inundation. Usually, Varadharajapuram gets flooded. But this time only empty plots in the locality have water, which is a peri-urban problem and will be taken care of,” she said. 

Chengalpattu District Collector S. Arunraj visited several relief camps. The three districts saw only under 20 trees falling due to the winds and rain. The respective administrations had kept equipment and machinery on the ready for any exigencies.