Cyclone Burevi has been stationary off the coast for 30 hours.
Chennai:
Seven people have died from heavy rains caused by Cyclone Burevi hitting parts of Tamil Nadu for the second day in a row, even as hundreds of villages remain flooded.
In Cuddalore district, around 300 villages have been flooded, while much of Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram district has no electricity.
The Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami, has announced a 10 lakh rupee relief for the families of the deceased, as well as compensation for the loss of homes and livestock. The state said it would pay Rs 30,000 for the loss of each cow, Rs 16,000 for a calf and Rs 3,000 for a goat.
Relief and restoration work is being carried out “on the warpath” and ministers have been deployed to personally oversee the rehabilitation in the affected districts, the chief minister said on Saturday.
Although Burevi, which is expected to hit southern Tamil Nadu and Kerala on Friday as a cyclonic storm with extremely heavy rains and winds close to 100 km per hour, has weakened to a well-marked low pressure that has remained stationary at the Gulf of Mannar region. for more than 30 hours now.
However, the coast and southern Tamil Nadu continue to receive heavy rains.
In Cuddalore district alone, up to 66,000 people have been transferred to relief camps, and another 5,000 have been evacuated in Ramanathapuram. Rameswaram has no power supply.
“We serve 66,000 people breakfast. Continued rain is a problem. We expect the rains to stop today. We are closely monitoring Lake Veeranam (in case of flooding),” said Gagandeep Singh Bedi, a senior government official in charge of Cuddalore told NDTV.
Across the state, 75 shacks have been completely destroyed. Another 1,725 have suffered partial damage. Also, eight tiled houses have been destroyed and 410 damaged.
66 trees have been uprooted and 27 power poles destroyed. 196 head of cattle died, while a still unknown number of other animals were also swept away or died.
NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) teams are on the ground assisting in relief work.
The meteorological department has forecast heavy to very heavy rains for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry over the next 48 hours as the depression further weakens, turning into a “well-marked low-pressure area” and shifts south of Kerala
As of this morning, the depression was about 40 km southwest of Ramanathapuram and had wind speeds of around 50 km per hour.
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