Cyclonic storm 'Fengal' over Bay of Bengal is likely to make a landfall on Saturday afternoon, close to Puducherry, with wind speed up to 90 kmph, the India meteorological department said on Friday.
Meanwhile, heavy rains accompanied by gusty winds pounded several parts of northern Tamil Nadu on Saturday, affecting normalcy, as cyclonic storm Fengal, expected to make landfall near Puducherry later in the day, continued moving towards the coast.
What began as intermittent rainfall in coastal regions on the night of November 29, gradually became steady leading to water logging in several areas and many residents of low-lying Madipakkam parked their vehicles on both sides of nearby Velachery flyover.
Residents of similar vulnerable areas also parked their vehicles in safe areas. Roads were largely deserted and civic workers, police, and fire and rescue personnel were deployed in all vulnerable places.
Departure and arrival schedules of flights were affected to some extent.
Chennai Metro Rail said its services were operational without any glitches and informed public of parking areas in specific stations that were prone to inundation.
State-run transport corporations operated skeleton services in Chennai and nearby areas.
As the sea was pretty rough, police put up barricades blocking access to noted beaches including the Marina and Mamallapuram. State-run Aavin milk supply was not affected and power supply continued to be normal in most areas.
The government had already declared November 30 a holiday for educational institutions and requested IT firms to make their employees work from home
With Fengal (pronounced as Feinjal) all set to cross coast, the Tamil Nadu government appealed to people to stay indoors and declared November 30 a holiday for educational institutions and IT companies were requested to allow employees to work from home. Public transport has been suspended on the East Coast Road and Old Mahabalipuram Road here, which is close to the shoreline, on Saturday afternoon.
Minister for revenue and disaster management KKSSR Ramachandran held a meet at the state emergency operations centre in Chennai with senior officials to review preparatory and relief measures
An official release said: "Tamil Nadu State Disaster Management Authority urges the general public to avoid visiting beaches, amusement parks and attending recreational events. The general public are requested to cooperate fully with the disaster prevention measures taken by the Government of Tamil Nadu."
Also, construction companies were asked to take precautionary measures to ensure that equipment, machinery does not fall down.
Similarly, those who had erected advertisement hoardings must ensure that these were swept away.
According to an IMD update (8.40 pm on Friday), Fengal was about 240 km east-northeast of Nagappattinam, 230 km east-southeast of Puducherry and 250 km southeast of Chennai.
Further, it said: "It is likely to move west-northwestwards and cross north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram close to Puducherry as a cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 70-80 kmph gusting to 90 kmph during the afternoon 30th November."
On December 1, heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely at isolated places in interior Tamil Nadu, and on December 2 and 3, heavy rainfall is likely at isolated places in the state.
Meanwhile, complying with an advisory, 4,153 boats have returned to the shore and 2,229 relief camps were ready for use if needed, the state government said.
As of now, a total of 471 people belonging to 164 families have been accommodated in six relief centres in Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts.
Boats, generators, motor pumps and all other necessary machinery and equipment are ready in districts and NDRF and state teams have been deployed wherever needed, including Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, Tiruvarur, Cuddalore, Thanjavur, Chengelpet and Chennai.
Senior officials assigned to supervise and coordinate related tasks with district authorities are stationed in their respective districts.
Chennai and nearby districts of Chengelpet, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur and the delta districts including Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur witnessed light to moderate rainfall and a few places recorded heavy showers.
