Chennai, North Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will witness strong winds and heavy rainfall for the next two days, according to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). A deep depression, located 500 km south-southeast of Chennai on Thursday evening, has developed into Cyclone Fengal causing significant rainfall across Tamil Nadu.
The storm is expected to make landfall between Mamallapuram and Karaikal on November 30, Saturday. Fengal is expected to bring rainfall to Chennai and its neighboring districts till December 1.
According to the latest weather bulletin from IMD, the deep depression over Southwest Bay of Bengal is likely to move north-northwestwards along the Sri Lanka coast and intensify into a cyclonic storm called Fengal, with a wind speed of 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph. The depression will intensify into a cyclone in the next 12 hours bringing heavy rains in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry till December 1. The Regional Meteorological Centre has issued orange and red alerts, indicating heavy to very heavy rainfall in the various coastal districts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Meanwhile, heavy rain continues to lash the central districts of the delta region - Mayiladuthurai, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, and Nagapattinam on Thursday.
The state government along with the Navy and the Coast Guard have made elaborate arrangements to face the cyclonic storm Fengal. A total of 13 teams of NDRF and nine from SDRF are on standby only to be deployed to various districts on emergency, according to an official release from the Tamil Nadu government.
The government has also deputed four IAS officers, Johny Tom Varghese, Kavitha Ramu, Gayathri Krishnan, and S.A. Raman. The IAS officers are already on the ground working to consolidate relief and rescue efforts in Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, Tiruvarur, and Cuddalore districts.
