heavy-rains-claim-12-lives-in-tamil-nadu

The Tamil Nadu government confirmed that 12 people died in incidents related to heavy rain in the last one week.

One person died due to lightning in Ranipet district on Tuesday. In the past 24 hours, heavy rain led to the death of 19 cattle and damage to 55 huts/houses in different parts of the state.
The meteorology department has forecast the formation of a low-pressure area over the southwest Bay of Bengal by Wednesday.

It is expected to move northeast wards and concentrate into a depression over central northeast awards, intensifying further afterwards.

“Ten SDRF teams of 296 members have been prepositioned in Kanyakumari, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and the Nilgiris districts due to the forecast,” an official release said.

Squally weather with wind speeds reaching 45kmph to 55kmph, gusting to 66kmph, is expected to prevail over the Comorin Area, Gulf of Mannar, adjoining south Tamil Nadu coast, the southwest Bay of Bengal, and the southeast Bay of Bengal. Fishermen are advised not to venture into these sea areas. Those who have already ventured into the sea are advised to return to the coast by Thursday.

Tourist spots in the western ghats are expected to experience heavy rain in the next three days, and there is a possibility of flash floods. Alert messages have been sent to 4.05 crore mobile phones in various districts including Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Dindigul, Coimbatore, the Nilgiris, Virudhunagar and Theni between May 18 and 20.

“Due to heavy rain warnings issued for the Western Ghats till May 24, the respective district collectors have issued media statements saying that tourists visiting these areas should take precautions and if they want to avoid visiting, they shall,” an official release said.
The state and district emergency operations centres are run round-the-clock with extra staff to monitor the situation.

The raingauge station in Aliyar, located in Coimbatore, recorded 14.6cm of rainfall during the 24-hour period that ended at 8.30am on Wednesday. This was followed by Thirumurthy dam with 14.3cm and Amaravathi dam with 12 cm of rainfall in Tirupur. The stations that topped the list were Kottaram (8.4cm), and Colachel (7.5cm) in Kanyakumari, Makkinampatti (8.2cm), and Varapatti (8cm) in Coimbatore, Madathukulam (7.5cm) in Tiruppur, Semmedu (7.14cm) in Villupuram, and Tirupathur (6.96cm) in Sivaganga.