Chennai rains: IMD issues heavy downpour warning due to Cyclone Fengal; are schools and colleges open today?

Heavy rains accompanied by gusty winds pounded several parts of northern Tamil Nadu on Saturday, affecting normalcy, as cyclonic storm Fengal, expected to make landfall near Puducherry later in the day, continued moving towards the coast.

The IMD has issued warnings for the coasts of North Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and southern Andhra Pradesh.

The IMD stated that the cyclonic storm Fengal, located over the southwest Bay of Bengal, moved north-northwestward at a speed of 7 km/h during the past six hours. As of 11:30 PM IST on November 29, it was centered over the same region near latitude 11.8°N and longitude 81.7°E, about 360 km north of Trincomalee, 230 km east-northeast of Nagapattinam, 210 km east of Puducherry, and 210 km southeast of Chennai.

The cyclone is likely to continue moving west-northwestward and cross the north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram, near Puducherry, as a cyclonic storm with wind speeds of 70-80 km/h, gusting to 90 km/h, during the afternoon of November 30.

Stalin reviews situation

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin reviewed the situation at the State Emergency Operations Centre with top officials and later told reporters that all precautionary measures have already been taken and camps have been set up for people of vulnerable areas and food was also being distributed to them. Also, the Chief Minister inspected a pumping station.

Greater Chennai Corporation authorities said 22,000 personnel including engineers, officials and sanitary workers were on the job and a total of 1,686 motor pumps of various capacities including 25-hp and 100-hp were in use. As many as 484 tractor-mounted heavy-duty pumps and 137 pumps of 100-hp capacity have been deployed.

Check Metro Railway advisory here: 

Meanwhile, the Chennai Metro Railway also issued an advisory amid the worsening conditions

Noting that coastal areas of Tamil Nadu would be most affected, Director of the Regional Meteorological Centre of Chennai, Dr. S. Balachandran told ANI, "Mostly coastal districts, with the crossing point between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram near Puducherry, will experience more impact. There will be wind and rainfall. Today, wind speeds reached 50-60 km/h, gusting to 70 km/h. Between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM, there will be extremely heavy rainfall, and at many places, there will be scattered heavy to very heavy rainfall."

Meanwhile, Srinuvas, the Director of the Visakhapatnam Cyclone Warning Centre in Andhra Pradesh, said they had issued a warning for "extremely heavy rainfall" in the districts of Nellore, Tirupati, and Chittoor for the next 24 hours.

(With ANI inputs)