Over 300 rescued but many still await relief
Chennai : Stepping up rescue and relief operations in the rain-hit city, a coordinated team of defence forces and NDRF on Thursday rescued over 270 stranded people, including a seven-moth-pregnant woman who was airlifted from one of the worst-affected areas. “About 120 rescued people were flown to Delhi in a C-130J (Super Hercules) on Thursday morning, while another 100 were rescued from Meenambakam airport area. We have deployed all necessary assets and the only bottleneck in our efforts is the weather,” said Air Marshal S R K Nair, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Training Command). A group of 50 students from a private university, who had been left stranded in the city, were also brought to Tambaram Air Base from where they would be flown to Bangalore or Delhi. Air Marshal Nair is heading the rescue operations in the city and adjoining areas that have been battered by torrential rains. “We are getting directions from the state government about the areas where rescue work needs to be carried out and then deploy forces accordingly.
All the three forces (Army, Air Force and Navy) are working like a well-oiled machinery and the weather today has been much better with very little rain, so we carried out a lot of relief and rescue sorties,” he said at the Tambaram Air Base, about 30 kms from here, this afternoon. “Besides, the 120 sent in C-130, another 20 have been sent to Arakonnam, from where they will fly out in different aircraft,” a senior IAF official said.
“We are fully prepared to tackle this situation and carrying out regular sorties. We performed several relief and recce sorties, as we have to save those who are badly stranded as well as give food items to those who are stuck in their homes,” Air Commodore Rippon Gupta said.
Seven-month-pregnant woman Sukanya (29) was one of those rescued on Thursday, who along with her three-year-old child, was airlifted from her home in Medumbakkam near Guindy, one of the worst-affected areas in Chennai.
She was brought to Tambaram Air Base in a Chetak helicopter, and then immediately taken to the Base Hospital. “We moved to the fourth floor of our house as the first and nearly the second floor has become inundated. There is no electricity in our area for the last two days. We had lost all hope until they rescued us today,” she told PTI. “My husband will come after me and we are planning to go to Kanchipuram, where my parents are waiting,” she said.
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Nitish sends Rs 5 cr for TN flood victims
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday sent Rs five crore to Tamil Nadu for relief and rehabilitation work in the southern state battered by incessant rains.
Kumar sent a cheque of Rs five crore to his Tamil Nadu counterpart Jayalalithaa from the Chief Minister’s Relief fund for relief and rehabilitation of victims of the rains, an official statement said here. Kumar expressed deep sorrow over loss of lives and property due to the rains in Tamil Nadu.
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