People in several rural parts of Thoothukudi district are still struggling, but officials or relief teams are yet to visit them.
Damage to highways, important connecting bridges, water channels, over bridges, arterial roads, among others, have completely cut off many of the places, hindering relief measures and rescue assistance.
The over bridge at Tamirabharani river at Eral was damaged last week as it was unable to resist the strong currents of the flood.
The river water which entered the residential areas damaged most of the commercial establishments at Eral.
In addition to this, a residential area which houses about 500 to 600 people situated on the embankments of the river on either side of the bridge has completely collapsed.
Villagers said areas located in the Vazhavallan panchayat and Eral town panchayat had not been visited by any of the officials or elected representatives. But they frequently visited the area to inspect the damaged bridge and commercial establishments.
The people said they were sleeping in the makeshift tents made by themselves in elevated areas nearby and a few in nearby temples. “Also, except for the relief materials we received from the government on Thursday, we did not get anything till now,” said M. Ponraj, a resident.
Mr. Ponraj’s grandparents’ house was completely washed away. Since his house could not accommodate his grandparents, they were made to sleep on the open ground with cardboard over their head as a shelter.
Another resident named, J. Lakshmanan, 35, of Chairman Kovil Street, said almost everyone residing in that area were daily-wage labourers who had no access to any of the officials to receive aid which the merchants residing on the other part of the village received.
“While most of the officials and Ministers’ attention was on the commercial establishments and the damaged bridge, we were invisible to their eyes,” he lamented.
About eight houses on the tip of the bank were washed away by the river and everything they earned in their lifetime went into the water,“ said Mr. Lakshmanan.
Many people were seen searching through the concrete remnants of their houses hoping to find any of their belongings. The residents were worried about their future as they have to restart their life from the scratch.
With the groceries they procured from various places they set up a community kitchen to prepare food for all households in the locality.
Madasamy, one of the residents who lost his house to the flood, said they did not receive any flood warning on Saturday or Sunday before the water was released from the dam.
“We got the flood warning five days before the release, but not on the day before or on the day of opening. If it was given, we would have safeguarded at least our valuables and documents,” he added.
The officials did not even care to visit and check on the people who survived such a situation, he said .
Most of them are staying on open grounds along with new-born babies and school-going children.
An official in the Eral taluk said, “The tahsildar was suspended last week for failing to manage the flood relief works properly.”
The remote and economically poor areas were not being concentrated by the higher officials, he said.
“The people have started agitating against the government’s,” he added.
Further, the official said about 2,035 houses were completely destroyed in Eral taluk. “About 400 people are found to be in utter loss, unable to recover from the loss or manage their daily life.”
Non-governmental organisations should come forward to provide them at least a hut or makeshift tents as the government could not reach out to all of them for monetary assistance, he said.
