Rain Lashes TN, Low Pressure To Intensify Into Depression
15 November,Chennai
After a day’s respite, several parts of Tamil Nadu, including Chennai city and its suburbs, received widespread rains since early this morning, following the low pressure area over the Andaman sea, intensifying the north east monsoon in the state. The systems was expected to concentrate into a depression, promising heavy rains for the next three days.
The rains, which began around 0430 hrs, has been pouring non-stop, inundating low lying areas in the city. Being a Sunday holiday, people of this metropolis woke up to dark and grey skies as the steady downpour kept them indoors. The normally bustling Marina beach front, which used to attract morning walkers and joggers, presented a misty picture and wore a deserted look.
Reports received here said several districts, including the cauvery delta areas of Thanajvur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam experienced good rains since this morning. Life in Cuddalore district, which was returning to normal after being battered by heavy rains a few days back, was also hit as fresh spells of rain hampered the ongoing relief works, which was being monitored by a team of senior Ministers and higher officials.
Meanwhile, taking stock of the situation in the wake of met office predicting heavy rains from today till November 17, Chief MinisterJ Jayalalithaa has deputed senior officials to 16 districts to take up relief and rehabilitation works.
She said the state government received an advisory from the National Disaster Management Authority that heavy to very heavy rainfall would occur at a few places with isolated extremely heavy rainfall over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during the next three days.
Stating that she was deputing 14 senior officials to various districts, Ms Jayalalithaa said, the officials has been directed to coordinate relief and rehabilitation measures.
The officials include, D Sabitha (Vellore), T Udayachandran (Villupuram), Shiv Das Meena (Nagapattinam), S Vijayakumar (Ramanthapuram), K Satyagopal (Tiruvarur and Thanjavur), C Samaymoorthy (Pudukkottai), Kumar Jayant (Tuticorin), C Senthilkumar (Tirunelveli) and Atul Anand (Kanniyakumari).
Senior officials including Mr Gagandeep Singh Bedi (Cuddalore), K Rajaraman (Kancheepuram), S K Prabhakar (Tiruvallur), Pradeep Yadav (Tiruvannamalai), Rajesh Lakhoni (Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri), who have already been deputed, will continue to stay in the districts.