“From 6 am to 4 pm on Thursday, Chennai district received 58.2 mm of rainfall and Tiruvallur received 58.8 mm. The neighbouring districts of Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu received 47.3 mm and 39.7 mm rainfall respectively,” the Minister said while addressing the media at the disaster management control room.

He further said that due to the very heavy rains, 10,000 cusecs of water were released from Poondi reservoir, 3,218 cusecs from Red Hills lake, 2,015 cusecs from Cholavaram lake and 2,151 cusecs from Chembarambakkam lake. As 11,000 cusecs of water were released from Pichatur dam in Andhra Pradesh, flood alert was issued to areas like Oothukottai, Periyapalayam and Ponneri. “As Adyar river is in spate, alert has been sent to residents of Astalakshmi Nagar, Buvaneswari Nagar, Mahalakshmi Nagar, Amutham Nagar and Sriram Nagar. A total of 9,696 people have been sent SMSes about the flood in Adyar river through common alert protocol,” the Minister added.

He stated that apart from the 44 relief camps functioning in Chennai, 185 camps have been set up in Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Nagapattinam, Perambalur, Pudukkottai, Ranipet, Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore, Kallakurichi, Tirupathur, Tiruvarur, Vellore and Villupuram districts where 10,073 people were put up. The Minister said that out of 523 places, water was cleared from 46 and pumping work was on in the rest of the places and 230 uprooted trees were cleared.

In the last 24 hours, two have died in Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts taking the death tally to 14 since Sunday, he said.