Flood alert in Cauvery river banks in Salem

Chennai, Sep 06: With the anticipated increased discharge of surplus water from Stanley reservoir in Mettur dam in nearby Salem district, the people living on the banks of Cauvery river have been asked to move to safer places particularly from low lying areas, Public Works Department officials said on Tuesday.

As the inflow into the reservoir started increasing from 65,000 cusecs to 80,000 cusecs on Monday night, the PWD on Tuesday decided to discharge 1.20 lakh cusecs of water from 16 sluice gates.

In view of this, a flood alert has been sounded to the people and are advised to move to safer places and not to venture into the waterbodies in delta districts, official sources said.

The dam is receiving water from Karnataka which is experiencing copious rains since Sunday night.

Meanwhile, two women died, when the rainwater entered into their houses in Yercaud Four Road in Salem in the early hours of Tuesday.

Palaniammal (80) and Rukmani (70) were sleeping in their respective houses, when the water entered their houses and they were not able to come out, official sources said. The fire and rescue service personnel with the help of police are engaged in rescue operations in the area, officials said.