Chennai, Dec 2: Parts of Tamil Nadu have been hit by heavy rain under the influence of Cyclone Fengal, which made landfall on Saturday and is moving towards Kerala and Karnataka as a weakened storm.
The heavy rain has led to school closure in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiri district and also a mudslide in Tiruvannamalai, where seven people are feared to be trapped below the debris.
Around 30 officers of the National Disaster Response Force have been engaged in a search and rescue operation for the trapped individuals, using hydraulic lifts.
Around seven people were feared trapped after a large boulder fell on their houses located on the lower slopes of the famous Annamalaiyar Hill in Tamil Nadu’s Thurivannamalai on Sunday evening following heavy rainfall in the district.
Visuals showed rescuers carrying out an operation to pull out the trapped people.
District collector D Baskara Pandian and Superintendent of Police M Sudhakar inspected the spot where the incident had occurred on Sunday evening.
“A large boulder has fallen on the huts located on the lower slopes of the hill. It is raining heavy and rescue operations are going on,” an official of the fire and rescue services told news agency PTI.
The IMD has predicted lightning and thunderstorms in the Nilgiri district, due to which all schools and colleges will remain shut on Monday, announced district collector Lakshmi Bhavya.
Schools and colleges are also closed in Villupuram, Cuddalore, Vellore and Ranipet districts of Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu’s additional chief secretary of revenue and disaster management, Rajesh Lakhani, said that some areas recorded 56 centimetres of rainfall, which is equivalent to an entire year’s rainfall, in 36 hours.
Lakhani also said, āMany trees have fallen, waterlogging is widespread, and road traffic and power supplies have been disrupted. However, people were evacuated in advance, and 49 relief camps have been established in Viluppuram alone. Efforts are underway across the state to restore normalcy in the shortest possible time.ā
In Cuddalore, a flood warning was issued due to release of excess water from Veeranam Lake.
The Uthangarai area of Krishnagiri district was also heavily flooded, with water flowing above the road and entering houses in residential areas.
In Viluppuram, passengers were stranded at the railway station as all the trains from the town to Chennai were cancelled due to heavy rain.