Chennai recorded 8.4cm rainfall in the past 24 hours, making it the highest downpour the southern city has witnessed in 30 years. Rain continues on Tuesday in the Tamil Nadu capital and its surrounding districts, even as overnight showers lashed the regions, triggering inundation of roads, severe waterlogging and traffic snarls.
The situation has disrupted normal functioning of lives, with people in Chennai struggling to walk on roads in knee-deep water.
Schools have also been shut in Chennai and six other districts such as Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, and Chengelpet.
Greater Chennai Corporation authorities inspected several regions, including subways like Ganesapuram as part of preparedness and storm water drain work. Flood monitoring cameras have also been installed in neighbourhoods that are vulnerable to flooding. Barricades have been put up in many stretches of roads owing to the ongoing Chennai Metrorail phase-2 project.
Chief minister MK Stalin is scheduled to chair a high-level meeting at the state secretariat today to review the monsoon preparedness.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had earlier issued a rain alert in Tamil Nadu till November 5, with a “yellow” alert being in place till November 4. Some districts such as Tiruppattur and Vellore are on “orange” alert today.
The weather department, however, has forecast more rainfall in the state, especially Chennai, for the remainder of the day. The capital city’s minimum temperature dipped to 23 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai had announced the onset of northeast monsoon in Tamil Nadu on October 29.
Met officials said that the upper air circulation system is weak, however, and not expected to become stronger. This circulation lying in the Southeast Bay of Bengal and off the northeast of Sri Lanka is causing rainfall in Tamil Nadu and even in some of its neighbouring states and UTs of Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry, among others.
