Heavy rains lashed the southern region of Tamil Nadu inundating the districts of Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Tenkasi and Kanyakumari on Sunday.
Thoothukudi received the highest rainfall of 283.5mm followed by Kanyakumari recording 128.5 mm of rainfall from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm on Sunday. The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai issued a red alert (the highest level of warning) for these districts. Visuals from these districts showed food water gushing through roads and entering homes and hospitals. The rains were brought by a cyclonic circulation over Equatorial Indian Ocean and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal off the coast of south Sri Lanka. Heavy rain also occurred in the districts of Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai, Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai and Virudhunagar. There is no official data yet on deaths if any and damages due to the flooding.
The state government’s chief secretary Shiv Das Meena held an emergency meeting with district collectors to take stock of the situation. Chief minister M K Stalin in a statement said that he has deputed senior bureaucrats to the four districts to evacuate people using inflatable boats and carry out rescue operations. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were also deputed. Schools in these four districts will be closed on Monday.