Incredibly, he is among the lucky ones. Arunachalam, an old man at Palavaay village, sported a white shirt and dhoti, the only pair left after his hut collapsed in the rain. His small agricultural plot is still marooned and all the 21 goats he reared for a supplementary income are dead. Clutching a set of photographs of his dead goats, he now waits by the road for some official to come by.

However, the impending general election has turned out to be a silver lining for the farming community. The state Government, anxious to retain maximum number of seats that the ruling alliance won during the last election, has directed the district administrations of the Cauvery delta region to act swiftly to help the public. The state has also decided to extend the last date for paying the crop insurance premium. The Government, said sources, sympathetically considered the representation from farmers who were unable to come out during heavy showers or mobilise even the premium of Rs 265.

Meanwhile, saddled with the priority of saving as many lives as possible and managing nearly six lakh persons in as many as 505 relief camps, the administration is stretched. “We are calculating the overall losses suffered by the farmers and others in the district. Our initial estimates show that 3,35,215 houses were submerged, nearly 1.5 lakh hectares of crop affected, about 1,000 km of roads damaged and 139 bridges and culverts affected badly,” Chandrasekaran said.