Rain Lashes Tamil Nadu, Normal Life Thrown Out of Gear

Chennai: Intermittent, widespre rains lashed Chennai and or parts of Tamil Nu on Tuesday, bringing residential neighbourhoods and ros under knee-deep water and leing to traffic congestion besides affecting public transport services.

While bus services were affected in several areas, Sourn Railway anunced cancellation of four express trains including Chennai Central-Mysuru Kaveri Express due to waterlogging.

A number of trains were diverted, some were stopped ahe of Chennai Central railway station. origin station was shifted to suburban Avi for a few trains. Several domestic flights were cancelled as sufficient number of passengers did t turn up to avail services.

India Meteorological Department has forecast more rains for next two days in state and said that well marked low pressure area has intensified into a depression on Tuesday evening and it is expected to cross coast near Chennai on October 17 morning. Earlier in day, low pressure area turned into a well marked low pressure area. A bulletin said that on October 16, "heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy rain at one or two places is likely to occur over Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu and Chennai districts." In wake of forecast, government declared October 16 a holiday for schools, colleges and government offices, barring essential services, covering districts including Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengelpet.

government said that disaster response force teams of state and centre are on standby in 26 locations in Chennai and districts nearby. Also, 219 boats are rey for use for rain related tasks in Chennai and or parts of state. In Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengelpet and Kancheepuram districts 931 relief centres are rey and top IAS officials are monitoring situation. While work is on to clear waterlogging in over 300 places in city, untoward rain-related incident has been reported so far, barring a wall collapse incident and injuries to a person.

Chief Minister M K Stalin, alongwith state ministers, inspected work to drain rain water in flood prone localities and took civic workers to a tea shop and bought m tea and biscuits and also h tea with m. Stalin hailed services of sanitary/civic workers and officials twithstanding heavy rains and said he will stand shoulder to shoulder with frontline workers.

CM also visited state emergency control centre here.

Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin inspected several localities, including Narayanapuram lake near Velachery and authorities said surplus rain from lake water drains into channels due to vance desilting work. He inspected integrated command and control centre of Chennai Corporation, functioning from its hequarters, Ripon Building, here to review ongoing work to tackle situation arising out of rains.

Tamil Nu DGP Shankar Jiwal visited State Police Flood Control Room at operations hequarters here and interacted with 6 teams of State Disaster Response Force and reviewed disaster related equipment.

As rains and thunderstorms continued, re was a dip in number of ro users in city and suburbs. Local train operations, including Metro Rail, by and large, remained unaffected till evening. Some people, who own cars in flood-prone Ram Nagar in Mipakkam parked ir vehicles in nearby Velachery bridge, a key part of busy south Chennai, and some, reportedly, moved away from ir homes to hotels.

Civic authorities said trees that fell were removed n and re and water logging is being cleared by pumping out water into stormwater drains. Heavy-duty motors mounted on tractors have been deployed to clear waterlogging. Boats have also been stationed in vulnerable areas. Greater Chennai Corporation anunced a helpline number 1913. A holiday h been declared for schools and colleges on October 15 and government requested people to check TN Alert App for wear updates. Since Monday night, Chennai and its suburbs have been experiencing intermittent rains.

Meanwhile, Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) said that under influence of wear system widespre rainfall was recorded in Tamil Nu during past 24 hours.

Furrmore, RMC said isolated heavy to very heavy rain is likely in Tamil Nu, Puducherry & Karaikal during next three days with extremely heavy rain at one or two places during next two days (October 16 and 17). Squally wear with 40 to 50 kmph wind speed, gusting to 60 kmph, is likely in rth coastal Tamil Nu on October 16 and fishermen have been vised against venturing into sea.

Also, RMC said Southwest monsoon has withdrawn and rast monsoon rainfall activity has commenced in Tamil Nu, Puducherry and coastal Andhra Presh. According to RMC bulletin, Kudumiyanmalai in Pudukottai district received 13 cm rainfall. Gummidipoondi in Tiruvallur district and Enre in Chennai received 10 cm rainfall each. A vast majority of areas of state have been covered by monsoon rains, which ranged between 1 cm to 9 cm. rainfall data is for 24-hour period commencing from 08.30 am on October 14 and ending on 8.30 AM following day.