Over 120 houses located along River Cauvery and in low-lying areas in Bhavani town were flooded, as the discharge of surplus from the Stanley Reservoir in Mettur into the river stood at 1.25 lakh cusecs here on Wednesday.
At 8 a.m., the inflow into the reservoir stood at 1.25 lakh cusecs while the same quantum was discharged into the river. While 1.02 lakh cusecs was discharged through the 16-ventu Ellis saddle surplus sluices, 23,000 cusecs was discharged through the power house. The water level continues to be maintained at its full reservoir level (FRL) of 120 feet while the storage was also maintained at its capacity of 93.4 tmc feet.
Water entered the houses in low-level areas at Kandhan Nagar, Cauvery Nagar, Pasuveswarar Street and Cauvery Street in Bhavani. A total of 53 families comprising 166 persons — 55 men, 69 women and 42 children — were moved to two relief centres in the area.
People said that this was the fourth time in the last one-and-half month that they were being moved to the camps. “Once in four years, the river will be in spate for a few days. But, this time, we were in relief centres for more than three weeks in two months”, said a resident. While two-third of the affected people moved to the camps with their belongings, many continue to stay in their houses despite flooding. Few families also moved to their relatives’ houses in the nearby areas. The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) has disconnected power supply to the flooded to prevent untoward incidents.
Revenue officials were closely monitoring the water flow in the river and continued to issue warnings to the people.
