Heavy rains and flash floods forecast in TN

Chennai: Visitors to the tourist spots in the Western Ghats and in the other districts that are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till Friday are advised to refrain from making their planned pleasure trips or make extra precautionary arrangements to protect them from nature’s fury that might even cause flash floods in those rainy days.

Among the districts that are marked to be in the danger zone are Theni, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Kanyakumari, Virudhunagar, Madurai, Dindigul, Tiruppur, Coimbatore and Sivaganga according to a warning issued by the State government on Wednesday.

While the State witnessed an extraordinary heat wave sweeping through it in the past one month when even salubrious hill stations recorded high temperatures, the mercury level dropped in many places in the last one week as intermittent showers cooled down the entire State. Now the State is poised for heavy rains, necessitating a plethora of measures by the government to avert disasters.

Short messages warning the people of a rain and flood threat have been sent to 4.05 crore mobile phones in the districts of Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Dindigul, Coimbatore, Niligiris, Virudhunagar and Theni from May 18 to 20 under the Common Alert Protocol and 269 personnel of the State Disaster Response Force have been deployed in various places.

The State fisheries department has warned fishermen against venturing into the sea as heavy winds lashing at speeds between 45 to 65 kilometres per hour were expected and tourist spots located in the coastal belt have been put on high alert and visitors told to take precautions to protect themselves from the heavy downpour.

However, the State recorded only 11.47 cm of summer showers, which was 9 per cent less than the usual downpour, between March 1 and May 21, while the average rainfall on Wednesday was 0.9 cm with Kanyakumari district receiving 3.75 cm and 11 other rain recording stations receiving heavy rains.

In Ranipet, one person died due to lightning strike in the 24 hours ending Wednesday morning with 12 rain-related deaths occurring between May 16 and 21. Apart from that, 19 heads of cattle were killed and 55 houses were damaged by the rains in the 24 hours.

However, there were no evacuation of people in the last few days and hence no relief camps were set up though the disaster management machinery has been put on high alert and round the clock emergency warning centres have become operational.