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Chennai braces for heavy rain as northeast monsoon spreads over coastal TN

Hindustan Times, Chennai | By
Oct 30, 2017 11:53 PM IST

Civic authorities in Chennai say they are better prepared this time to tackle the rain and that the nightmare of December 2015 when the city was flooded, is unlikely to be repeated.

Chennai is bracing itself for another possible deluge with the Met office predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall across coastal Tamil Nadu over the next five days.

File photo of Chennai airport flooded due to heavy rain in December 2015.(PTI)
File photo of Chennai airport flooded due to heavy rain in December 2015.(PTI)

But the rain is not expected to be as heavy it was 2015 when Chennai was flooded for three days. In November 2015, Chennai received 1218.6 mm of rain, three times the normal rain that month and on December 1 alone it received 374 mm rain that flooded the city.

“Rainfall in Chennai will not be that heavy as in 2015 but it will be heavy to very heavy rainfall, scattered over the next 24 hours till 8:30 am Tuesday,” said S Balachandran, director, regional metrological centre

Chennai is expected to receive between 6 mm to 7 mm rainfall in the next 24 hours, the met official said. The highest rainfall recorded so far was 9 mm at 8:30 am Monday in Nagapattinam, about 300 km south of Chennai.

After being caught on the wrong foot in 2015, the administration is not taking any chances this time.

The Chennai administration has asked the schools to close one hour ahead of normal time as rainfall is predicted to be very heavy during the evening. Depending on the rain, the administration will decide whether to order schools to remain shut on Tuesday.

“We have taken many precautions. Desilting of drains (1174 km) has been done so that rain water can drain away into the sea,” Chennai corporation commissioner D Kartikeyan told reporters.

He also said the corporation personnel were on call to deal with any stagnation of water.

According to the Met office, heavy to very heavy rain would occur along the coast and the districts of Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Tiruvarur, Nagapatttinam, Thanjavur and Chennai.

Upper air circulation over south east Bay of Bengal near Sri Lanka is causing wide spread rain in coastal region and fairly widespread rain in eastern parts.

In the entire coastal region from Tiruvallur to Ramanathapuram, there will be heavy to very heavy rain, the Met office. There would be heavy to very heavy rainfall in one or two places in south coastal TN too.

But in Coimbatore and Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu’s west, the north east monsoon showers will take another day or two to reach, the Met office said.

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