Chennai: People wade through a flooded street after heavy rainfall in Chennai. (PTI photo,file)The Greater Chennai Police Friday announced traffic diversions in the city as seven subways and eight roads in the city remained shut due to heavy waterlogging post incessant rains in the city.
The rains in Tamil Nadu subsided on Friday as the depression over the Bay of Bengal weakened into a “well marked low pressure area”. The weather system had crossed the coast of Tamil Nadu between 5.30 pm and 6.30 pm on Thursday, bringing with it heavy rains and high winds. The red alert issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has now been withdrawn.
On Friday, thunderstorms with heavy rains are likely to be witnessed in parts of the state, including Nilgiris, Coimbatore and Kanyakumari districts. Light to moderate rain is likely to occur at many places over the rest of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal area. Schools and colleges remain closed on Friday.
Chennai bore the brunt of the depression, with the rains flooding major roads and neighbourhoods, disrupting power supply to more than 65,000 houses, delaying rail operations, and halting flight arrivals for about six hours Thursday. At least 14 people have died in rain-related incidents across the state over the past 11 days.
The rains over the last two weeks have submerged standing agricultural crop on at least 1.45 lakh acres and horticultural crop on 6,000 acres in the state. Tamil Nadu Agriculture Minister M R K Panneerselvam called this a “preliminary estimate”, adding that the actual loss to long-term Samba rice crop, raised on about 44 lakh acres, can be assessed only after the water recedes.
Helpline numbers (toll free): 1070, 1077, 1913
Thundershowers likely to occur in Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai, Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts in Tamil Nadu.
River Kosasthaliyar at Monnavedu in Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu, is flowing 0.91 m above its highest flood level (HFL) with rising trend.
A low-pressure area now lies inside the north TN neighbourhood interior, says IMD. "A trough lies from Andhra to the Kumaran area through interior TN, due to which rain has cleared. We are getting sunshine through the cloudy sky," Dr. S Balachandran, Head RMC, IMD, said. "A low-pressure area to form tomorrow in the far south Andaman Sea tomorrow, likely to move west-northwestwards, in a concentrated depression by the 15th. Light to moderate rainfall expected in Chennai & suburban areas," he added.
Tamil Nadu SDMA volunteers provide food for livestock in a flooded area.
In 2015 and during many such extreme weather systems that Chennai has witnessed, it was mostly central and southern parts of the Tamil Nadu capital that bore the brunt. However, in the rains that have lashed Chennai in the past five days, North Chennai, the city’s congested neighbourhood with a largely working class population and several industries, is worst-affected.
Heavy rains that lashed the city of Chennai on Thursday resulted in shutting down power supply for over 66,000 households, Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji said. Speaking to the media on Thursday, the minister said power supply was stopped in many areas in parts of central and north Chennai as a precautionary measure in order to prevent electricity-related accidents.
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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) Friday said that thunderstorm with heavy rain is likely to occur at isolated places over Kanyakumari, Vellore, Ranipet. Tirupattur, Dharmapur, Tiruvannamalai, Kallakurichi, Namakkal, Karur, Dindigul, Salem, Coumbatore, Theni, Perambalur, Tiruchirapalli, Madurai, Virudhunagar and Therkasi ditricts. Thundentorm with moderate rain is also likely to occur at many places over rest Tamilnadu, Pudocherry & Karaikal, the department said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to restore Chennai international airport as an embarkation point for Haj pilgrims in the state. He said Chennai had served as embarkation point for over 4,500 Haj pilgrims from the State as well as those from Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands during 2019. In addition, the pilgrims from Karnataka and Kerala too had utilised Chennai as their embarkation point.
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The Madras High Court on Thursday ruled Chennai Metro Rail Limited has no jurisdiction to fine its maskless travellers and set aside CMRL’s earlier order levying and collecting a sum of Rs 200 from such persons as penalty.
The order, made in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, might have been issued in public interest and its intention might have been good. But CMRL has no jurisdiction or authority to do so, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu said.
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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin felicitated TP Chatram station inspector E Rajeshwari for rescuing an unconscious man by carrying him on her shoulders amid relentless rain and sending him to a hospital in an auto-rickshaw.
The rains over the last two weeks have submerged standing agricultural crop on at least 1.45 lakh acres and horticultural crop on 6,000 acres in the state. Tamil Nadu Agriculture Minister M R K Panneerselvam called this a “preliminary estimate”, adding that the actual loss to long-term Samba rice crop, raised on about 44 lakh acres, can be assessed only after the water recedes.
The Tamil Nadu State Disaster Management Authority (TNSDMA) Friday said that the discharge of water from Poondi has been increased from from 12000 cusecs to 15000 cusecs at 9.30 am on Friday as current inflow is around 18000 cusecs. An alert has been issued for all the habitations on the downstream, TNSDMA said.