CHENNAI: Three people were killed and 118 huts and tile-roofed houses were damaged due to cyclone Nivar in Tamil Nadu, minister of income and disaster management RB Udhyakumar he said Thursday.
The initial estimate is that 29 head of cattle died.
At least 2.25 lakh people, including 39,886 children, had been sheltered in 3,042 government aid camps as of Thursday morning, it said.
Earlier in the day, Udhayakumar said administrative machinery removed 456 of the 505 uprooted trees and restored 19 of the 469 power poles. The government has established 880 permanent medical camps and 244 medical camps to provide assistance. At least 73,491 people benefited from these camps.
As a precautionary measure, the release of water from the Chembarambakkam reservoir was kept at 1,500 cusecs (cubic feet per second) and therefore people should not panic, the minister said. There is a constant rise in the water level in the main reservoirs, including Mettur (99.32 feet) and Bhavanisagar (95.41 feet).
A ship, INS Jyoti of the Indian Navy, is positioned north of Chennai and INS Sumitra will arrive in Chennai in the afternoon with rescue teams and rescue equipment.
The minister said there were 19 mobile cells in the coastal districts to provide telecommunications services. Only 286 of the 22,017 mobile towers in the state are down and 594 of the 48,145 base transceiver stations suffered due to the rain.
The Tangedco kept 20,000 people on alert and sent 5,800 people to the districts that would be affected by the cyclone. There was a 1.98 lakh stock of concrete power poles, 5,400 transformers and power conductors of various sizes, Udhayakumar said.
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