Trichy: Despite the precautionary measures taken by the state earning the praise for Opposition parties, death from due to Gaja touched 45 on Sunday, raising many eyebrows.Senior officials engaged in monitoring relief and rescue works said that hesitation shown by people to move towards safe shelters when the disaster struck was the key reason for the rising death toll. District administrations said the unpredictable course of Gaja and frequent changes in localities where it could have made a possible landfall made identification of most vulnerable spots challenging for officials.According to revenue administration, disaster management, and mitigation, 45 deaths have been confirmed across the state due to Gaja cyclone, 12 of are in Tiruvarur and 9 in Nagapattinam. Though 51,928 people were evacuated across the state on November 15, the night before Gaja made landfall, disaster management sources said that many people in the affected districts hesitated to move to shelters believing that their houses would remain intact.Though the officials through loudspeakers were claimed to have alerted the hamlets adjoining Vedaranyam, several people in the houses of tiled roofs preferred to stay back in their houses. “Fortunately there was not heavy rain in Vedaranyam and Thiruthuraipoondi before cyclone’s landfall on Friday. Otherwise, more number of buildings would have collapsed and taking the death toll up,” an official involved in relief measures said.Disaster management teams claimed that the maximum number of deaths was caused by wall and house collapse in Cauvery delta districts followed by trees falling over the victims even in Sivaganga and Dindigul districts.“Uncertainty persisted in locality where Gaja would have made landfall. Forecast said that cyclone would make landfall below Kodiyakkarai, but it was only on Wednesday we were informed that Vedaranyam was the landfall spot,” a senior official in Nagapattinam district said.Revenue department said Pudukkottai witnessed unprecedented disaster as they have not encountered cyclones in recent years. Besides the house collapse, tree falling and electrocution, deaths due to snake bite was reported from Vaduvur in Tiruvarur district.“People hesitated to come out, and such hesitation shown by people resulted in such number of casualties despite our timely alerts,” K Satyagopal, Revenue administration, disaster management and mitigation commissioner told TOI.

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