Team News Riveting
Chennai, November 7
Incessant rainfall that the capital city of Tamil Nadu has been witnessing since Saturday night has raised fear of a possible flood in Chennai.
The authorities on Sunday sounded a preliminary flood alert to people as two city reservoirs are set to be opened. Chembarambakkam and Puzhal reservoirs, which is important sources of drinking water to the Chennai city, would be opened to flow out surplus rain water. The state water resources authorities advised district collectors of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur to evacuate people living in low-lying areas and house them in safe locations.
The weather condition is not likely to change in another couple of days that has added further worries for the authorities.
The Indian Meteorology Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rain in Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Ranipet, Vellore, Tirupattur, Krishnagiri, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Nilgiris, Salem, Erode, Namakkal, Kallakuruchi, Tiruvanamalai, and Tiruchy in next 24 hours. It predicted that a low-pressure area is likely to move towards north Tamil Nadu in the next two days and rains will continue to increase in the state’s north coastal region on November 11 and 12.
The department said that heavy to very heavy rain was expected in Chennai and surrounding areas from November 10. The capital city is already reeling under heavy rains for the past few days and people are being shifted from low-lying areas of the city including Anna Nagar.
According to Weather blogger K Srikanth, this was the highest amount of rainfall the city had received in a 24-hour period since 2015. He said that much of the rain occurred in the night and was likely to continue till morning on Monday. Due the technical snag, the forecast system was out of order and hence the intensity of the spell could not be judged more precisely.
