With the deep depression, a remnant of the weakened cyclone Ditwah, staying close to the Chennai coast in the Bay of Bengal, a red alert for extremely heavy rainfall for the next 12 hours has been issued to Chennai and the neighbouring Tiruvallur district on Monday evening.
The system is so close to the city that the centre of the system from Chennai coast is about 30 km and it is moving at a slow pace of 3 kmph, the Regional Meteorological Centre said in its latest update, adding that it is moving parallelly northwards toward south Andhra Pradesh coast. Under its influence, the Tirupati and Nellore districts would receive heavy rains accompanied by squally winds up to 60 kmph, before the deep depression is likely to fizzle out gradually on Tuesday.
A private weather blogger, citing strong cloud cover and moisture content which triggered the heavy rains, has predicted that the deep depression instead of weakening might possibly stay close to Chennai and the possibility of it intensifying back into a cyclonic storm could not be ruled out.
Chennai and its suburbs as well as neighbouring Tiruvallur and parts of Chengalpattu and Kanchipuram districts have been receiving continuous heavy spells since the morning, throwing normal life out of gear. With waterlogging in many low-lying areas, the Greater Chennai Corporation has deployed motor pumps top drain water. Corporation personnel were also engaged in clearing fallen trees on roads and in residential areas besides cutting ones posing a threat of falling down in the heavy rain.
At the arterial Greenways Road, housing the residential quarters of Ministers and High Court Judges, a massive tree had fallen crushing two cars. It was removed later on.
The Cauvery delta districts and Karaikal region of Puducherry Union Territory heaved a sigh of relief as the cyclone moved northwards. But, the cyclone-driven rains had inundated standing paddy crops in nearly one lakh hectares of farmland in the region.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister MK Stalin held a high-level review meeting with top officials. He has also ordered release of funds from the State Disaster Relief Fund to pay compensation for loss of lives, crop loss, house damage and loss of livestock. He has directed officials to ensure all necessary facilities to the people staying in the relief camps till it is required and drain water from waterlogged areas.