Rains batter TN overnight, more expected

With the northeast monsoons remaining active, rains battered many parts of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry overnight as the weather office forecast heavy downpour for the next 24 hours.

Nagapattinam and Cuddalore districts of Tamil Nadu and Karaikal near Pondicherry received particularly heavy rainfall throughout Monday night leading to inundation of low-lying areas.

Though during daytime on Monday there were no rains in the city and suburbs, the night saw intermittent downpour.

Weather office said the low pressure area over southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining Sri Lankan coast, continued to persist for the fourth day on Monday, and due to this there was likely to be rainfall or thundershowers during the next 24-hours beginning at 8.30 AM Tuesday morning.

The coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry were likely to experience rains, and isolated heavy to very heavy falls during the same period.

Kariakal, an enclave of Pondicherry recorded 31 centimetres of rainfall in the last 24 hours ending at 8.30 AM Tuesday and at Cuddalore, many places were inundated leading to 5,000 persons being shifted to safer places, official sources said.

At Kancheepuram, which also had heavy rains, the Thandalam lake near Tirupporur breached and overflowing waters affected about 3,000 acres of agricultural land and submerged 500 metres of a road near Old Mahabalipuram, reports said.

Cuddalore District Collector Gagandeep Singh Bedi told PTI that the Veeranam lake was receiving heavy inflows and presently the water level stood at 44.7 feet against the full level of 47.5 feet. Hence, the inflow was being released.

Bedi said due to the release of surplus water from Veeranam, the paddy fields in areas like Kattumannar were likely to be affected.

Embankments in Chayyar river have 18 breaches, which have now been strengthened to prevent any outflows. At Kollidam river, nine breaches have been strengthened, he said.

Food packets have been distributed to 5,000 persons affected by rains. The affected are now housed in some schools. Milk and bread have been distributed to children and medical teams have been sent to various areas to prevent any outbreak of diseases, he said.

In the city, many low-lying areas continued to remain waterlogged and corporation officials are taking all efforts to remove the water.