'Laila' brings heavy rain

Two deaths were reported by evening, taking the death toll to six in Tamil Nadu.
Widespread rains pounded the Cauvery delta districts, including Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur and Tiruchirappalli. A Jet airways flight with 70 passengers on board from Madurai to Chennai on Tuesday night survived intense wind turbulence while flying over Cuddalore district, sources said. A fisherman was dragged away by a huge wave in Ramanathapuram district, while a 24-year-old techie was electrocuted after she stepped on a live wire that had snapped following heavy winds in the Chennai suburb of Vellachery.

Large parts of arterial roads were under knee-deep water with the city recording a maximum of 8 cm rainfall. CBSE students, keen to check the Plus Two results announced on Wednesday, were hampered by water-logging.

Power supply and transportation in different parts of the State were badly hit. Over 140 boats including an Indian Coast Guard vessel and two boats of the Tamil Nadu Police’ Coastal Security Group, suffered heavy damage as strong winds lashed the coast on Tuesday night near Rameshwaram.

The Andhra Pradesh Government has put all the nine coastal district administrations on a high alert as the cyclone intensified, bringing heavy rain, gales and thunderstorms that have claimed about 25 lives in the last two days.

Nine teams of the National Disaster Response Force and CISF have been deployed in the coastal districts, relief camps have been set up and necessary relief materials are being mobilised.