After making a landfall at the Tamil Nadu’s coastal areas predominantly at the Union territory of Puducherry, Villupuram, Chennai, Karaikal, Chengalpet, Nagapatinam, and other areas, Cyclone Fengal made slow progressing movement towards the west and Southwest of Tamil Nadu towards the Kerala Coast, South interior Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh – with a total duration of landfall over Tamil Nadu for around six hours.
Highest rainfall recorded at Villupuram & Puducherry
There was continuous rainfall throughout these times at about 13 districts of Tamil Nadu with the highest of rainfall recorded at the Villupuram which was about 50 cm and the UT of Puducherry which recorded a record-high rainfall over the past 30 years which was 48.4 cm. Later on Cyclone Fengal would wean into a deep depression and pass through the west and South west of Tamil Nadu heading towards the Kerala coast and the South and Southwest interior Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Indian Army, Coast Guards & NDRF into Rescue & Relief Works
Due to the incessant rains, flooding occurred at several areas in Puducherry – predominantly at some low-lying areas of the Union Territory such as Krishnanagar, Kubera Nagar, Jeeva Nagar and NR Nagar where the Indian Army personnel along with the Indian Coast Guard men and the NDRF and SDRF personnel went in boats to rescue people from inundated areas and brought them to temporary relief shelter camps. The district administration had designated all schools and colleges – government and private as cyclone relief camps and had deployed officials of the concerned authority to address the needs of the affected people during the cyclone.
The district collector of Puducherry had alerted the Indian Army’s Chennai Garrison Battallion early morning on Sunday to send a team for rescuing people who have been trapped at their houses due to flooding. Teams of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) were deployed to heavily affected areas with food packets, drinking water and medical relief materials using boats and other emergency kits. These teams were headed by an officer who had six junior commissioned officials under them to monitor more than 60 soldiers who work on the ground with them involved with rescue and relief work.
Nearly 200 people from the Krishna Nagar in Puducherry alone was rescued by the Indian Army personnel from their homes that were inundated with rains with water level rising even over five feet at ground-floors and basements of residential buildings. Further more people who were trapped at their flooding houses in Kubera Nagar, Jeeva Nagar, NR Nagar were also rescued by the army personnel who moved them to the cyclone relief camps.
Nearly 1500 affected people were shifted to 32 relief camps with a considerable amount of them being women and children. According to sources in the CMO, around 27,000 people have gotten food packets from the Amma canteen that had specially prepared food for the flood relief victims.
Casualties
Tamil Nadu government authorities stated that there were three persons who were killed in separate incidents due to electrocution in Chennai. A family of seven was feared to have been buried alive after boulders and mud came rolling downstream and covered their house in Thiruvannamalai. Among the seven, five are said to be children, the rescue sources said. NDRF and the state’s Fire and Emergency Personnel are using earthmovers to find the trapped victims.
According to the authorities, in Chennai and the UT Puducherry, there were around 27 incidents of trees that were uprooted and around 125 electric poles were broken and damaged. Electrical supply was disrupted wherever these damages occurred and the authorities soon after repairing the poles, electrical supply was restored.
The authorities also pointed out the main challenge was to clear the water logging. Men from the Public Works Departments were deployed all around to clear the stormwater drains so that the water logging was cleared at the earliest. The authorities declared 21 out of the total 23 subways clear for use after the PWD men pumped out water using water motor pumps.
CM MK Stalin visits cyclone affected areas & takes stock
Chief minister MK Stalin visited the Emergency Operations Centre in Ezhilagam in Chennai from where he had conducted video conferencing with district collectors and other officials to take stock of the situation and also to review rescue and relief work, precautionary measures and also to assess the situation on ground. The CM later visited the Marakkanam area and the Kottakupam in Villupuram which recorded the highest rainfall and had considerable amount of water logging affecting residents there. The chief minister also distributed relief kits to the affected people and urged them to stay safe taking advice from the authorities.
Stalin then visited the other flood affected areas and directed his district in-charge ministers to review and assess the rescue and relief work at their respective cyclone affected zones. CM Stalin also urged the Centre to send a team of officials to assess the situation and also to evaluate the crop loss in the agriculture sector due to Cyclone Fengal. Earlier, son of CM, and the Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin was distributing relief kits to the affected victims.
Public Transport Affected
Public transport was also affected in Chennai and surrounding areas with the district administration suspending bus services and suburban train services from Saturday afternoon. Bus services were suspended on the Old Mahabalipuram Road and the East Coast Road where there was continuous rainfall and there was instances of water logging and flooding. Suburban trains were suspended since Saturday afternoon and only resumed by Sunday afternoon.
Airport Operations Disrupted
Operations at the Chennai Meenambakkam International airport remained suspended from Saturday evening and it only resumed at 1am early on Sunday after there there was clearance from the Indian Meterological Department (iMD) that the skies were safe for landing and take-offs. It was earlier announced by the Airport authorities that the services would be suspended until 4 am in the morning. Several passengers were stranded and some of them annoyed were also demanding for a refund for their tickets. Earlier on Saturday, due to the incessant rainfalls, two runways and one taxi-way were inundated with water affecting flight operations. A couple of private carriers had suspended their operations and informed their passengers about the disruption even before the Chennai International Airport authorities shut down their operations.
As on Sunday, there were around 45 domestic flights that were cancelled due to Cyclone Fengal. These flights were to cities like Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, and Bengaluru that were cancelled, and additionally 22 in-bound flights were also cancelled. A total of 20 international flights to destinations like Doha, Dubai, Sharjah and Kualalampur were also cancelled on Sunday. However, airport operations returned to normal after it was resumed earlier at 1 am.
Sources from the Chennai Regional Meterological Department stated that Cyclone Fengal which had made the landfall between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram near Puducherry hovered slowly above the Tamil Nadu skies for about six hours and continued to move towards in the direction of west and Southwest – towards the interior parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and the four coastal districts of Kerala.
The Kerala Disaster Management and Relief Authority have issued Red Alerts at four districts of Kerala – Mallapuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Wayanad which is highly a land-slide prone area. Schools and colleges have been declared holiday on Monday and people have been advised to stay indoors. They have also been directed to look up for advisories from reliable – mostly governmental sources and to also prepare themselves with an emergency kit to deal with during disasters. Orange alerts have been issued to districts like Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palghat and Kasargod too.
