The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert, indicating heavy to extremely heavy rainfall, in parts of Tamil Nadu, including northern Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengelpet, Kancheepuram, Ranipet, Villupuram and Cuddalore districts, on Thursday.
Heavy rains have been pounding Tamil Nadu due to the formation of a depression in the Bay of Bengal. In its latest bulletin, the IMD said the weather system was moving west-northwestwards at a speed of 4 kmph. It lay about 130 km east-southeast of Chennai and 150 km east-northeast of Puducherry at 8.30 am. IMD said it was likely to continue moving west-northwestwards and cross north Tamil Nadu and adjoining Andhra Pradesh coasts between Karaikal and Sriharikota, close to the north of Puducherry, by Thursday evening.
Several roads in Chennai were inundated on Thursday. The traffic police closed at least seven roads and 11 subways and created diversions across the city for commuters. Due to waterlogging on rail tracks, some suburban trains were suspended while others were delayed.
Around 10 arrivals and 10 departures were delayed and four flights were diverted to Bengaluru and Hyderabad because of heavy rain at Chennai airport on Thursday morning. One flight each from Mumbai and Kolkata was diverted to Hyderabad while one from Trichy and another from Delhi were diverted to Bengaluru. A few departures have been postponed to later in the day.
The power supply has been disconnected from more than 65,000 houses in Chennai.
The death toll due to rain-related incidents has risen to 14. The government has confirmed that there have been 14 deaths, and 157 cattle lives lost. Also, 1,146 huts and 237 houses have been damaged due to the inclement weather.
