Even as a holiday was declared for schools and colleges in most of the southern districts on Wednesday, there was no significant rainfall on Wednesday morning.
Senior officials, including district collectors, were inspecting the flood prone and low-lying areas to oversee the arrangements made to minimize the impact of any possible floods.
Its collector, S Gopal Sundar Raj, said, “The sun has set in Tenkasi district and schools and colleges are functioning as usual.” He said the district had received 2.6 mm of rain till Wednesday morning. Water has been released from all the dams for irrigation.
Educational institutions in Thoothukudi district resumed functioning on Wednesday.
Vaigai on boom
Meanwhile, water was released from Vaigai Dam on Tuesday night after reaching the third and final flood alert level and the storage reached 69 feet (maximum level 71 feet) at around 10 am.
People living on the banks of the river in five districts of Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram have been asked to move to safer places.
The second flood warning was issued earlier in the day when morning levels touched 68.50 feet. Vaigai Dam was receiving 3,457 cusecs inflow and the discharge has been gradually increased from 1,000 cusecs on Tuesday night to 3,569 cusecs on Wednesday.
While 3,000 cusecs were being released through the river, 500 cusecs were released through canals and 69 cusecs for the purpose of drinking water.
safe accommodation
After torrential rains on Tuesday, Madurai Collector S. Anish Shekhar inspects the Sri Lankan refugee camp in High Strip, where waterlogging was reported.
As some houses were dilapidated, around 60 persons were shifted to the community hall as a precautionary measure. District Revenue Officer G. Senthilkumari said that 20 residents of Adi Dravida Colony have already been provided with safe accommodation, where waterlogging was reported.
An official said that out of over 2,500 tanks, about 900 irrigation tanks had 100% storage and about 350 tanks have water at 75% of their capacity.