The police have deployed drones and mini-hovercraft fitted with surveillance cameras for relief and rescue work.
For the last six days, police personnel have been conducting relief and rescue operations at many residential areas flooded with rainwater. They worked in coordination with the Fire and Rescue Services personnel, and staff from other departments have been removing trees that had fallen on roads and pumping out stagnant water in residential areas.
As many as 13 Greater City Disaster Response Teams have been constituted, and each police district was allotted one team each.
A senior police officer said, “With effect from Friday, we have deployed drones and mini-hovercraft fitted with cameras and public address systems to quickly reach out to people stranded in flooded areas.”
Each Joint Commissioner of Police in the city has been allotted one team with drones and hovercraft. On Friday, personnel used them in Washermenpet, Tondiarpet, R.K. Nagar, Pulianthope, Kolathur, Marina beach, Pattinampakkam, Mylapore and Mambalam.
R.R. Sivaraam, owner of a private firm, said: “We have volunteered to sponsor this activity to assist the police. These devices are used for surveillance and provide support to the rescue teams. They can send out emergency broadcast and carry emergency water bottles, medical kits and food to people stranded in flooded areas.”
Meanwhile, over 3,428 people affected by inundation have been rescued by the police personnel, and sheltered at 79 relief camps in the city.
