300 houses along coastline damaged, over 10,000 housed in 169 relief shelters

Corporation workers swing into action and clear hundreds of trees that crashed because of strong winds in Besant Nagar, Adyar and Anna Nagar

Over 10,000 people were housed in 169 relief shelters in various parts of the city on Saturday and at least 300 houses were damaged along the coastline after cyclone made a landfall along the coast.

M. Radhika, councillor of Ward 174 in Besant Nagar, said: “Over 300 houses along the coastline were damaged. A number of residents near the coastline were affected. Some of the residents, including migrant workers from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, have been housed in relief centres. We have distributed relief material to the migrant workers.”

According to civic officials, more than 10,000 people were housed in 169 relief shelters in various parts of the city but many of them started returning home after the cyclone landfall on Saturday.

Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi visited the affected areas and asked the engineers to provide relief material to affected residents. 

The Corporation removed more than 500 trees that were uprooted in the cyclone on Saturday. The largest number of trees were removed in areas such as Besant Nagar, Adyar and Anna Nagar to facilitate movement of traffic. More than 95% of the trees had been removed by Saturday evening.

T.V. Shemmozhi, Councillor of Ward 104, said that 120 trees, including 30 huge ones, were uprooted in many of the 295 roads in his ward because of the cyclone on Saturday. “The traffic movement has been restored,” he said. A few trees were uprooted in areas such as Egmore, Chintadripet, Triplicane and Vepery.

Parithi Illamsuruthi, Councillor of Ward 99 in Egmore, said 19 trees in his area were uprooted because of the cyclone. “This includes five huge trees. All the trees have been removed,” he said.