Sunday, December 4 2005 16:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Describing as complex the flood situation in the city and suburbs following the latest heavy downpour on Thursday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today (Dec 4, 2005) said the situation would improve by tomorrow if there was no further rain today in the catchment areas.

After reviewing the flood situation in the city and neighbouring Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts, she said that relief operations were being under taken on a war-footing and around 1.75 lakh people, including 75,000 from the city, had been evacuated and sheltered in relief centres.

"The high flow in Cooum river, which caused flooding of many city localities yesterday in the wake of release of excess water from Poondi Reservoir, had come down to 13,000 cusecs from 14,000 cusecs following corresponding reduction in the inflow into the dam," she said, adding, "Further reduction can be expected by tomorrow."

However, as the Adayar river, which is also in spate following release of excess water from Chembarambakkam Lake, inundating southern parts of the city continued to be high today at 12,000 cusecs due to heavy rainfall in Sriperumbudur area, the situation was being monitored closely.

"Giving an overview of the flood situation," she said as all the lakes and reservoirs adjoining the city were already full following the earlier downpours, the latest spell with a record rainfall of 28 cms at Meenambakkam recorded on December two had resulted in a complex situation with the entire precipitation in the huge catchment area having no place to go. "This has resulted in heavy flooding of the entire Chennai city."