Heavy rains lash south Tamil Nadu; Tiruchendur Murugan temple flooded

Southern Tamil Nadu, especially Thoothukudi, Tenkasi, and Tirunelveli districts, were battered with extremely heavy rains on Thursday leading to severe flooding in several areas. Moreover, Chennai and its neighbouring districts are expected to receive heavy rains from Friday.

Incessant rains, extremely heavy most times, led to flooding of the famous Lord Murugan Temple in Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district, while the waterfalls at Courtallam in Tenkasi was closed for tourists. Devotees shared pictures and videos of rainwater entering the Tiruchendur temple on the seashore on WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook.

As heavy rains lashed the three districts for the whole of Thursday, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red alert to Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, and Tenkasi districts, prompting the district administrations to declare a holiday for schools and colleges on Friday. Red alert was also issued to Nagapattinam and Pudukkottai districts.

The situation was grim in Thoothukudi district as over 20 cm of rainfall in merely 8 hours on Thursday flooded several low-lying areas causing inconvenience to people. Videos of water entering houses and knee-deep water on main roads and at railway stations were widely shared on social media.

There seems to be no respite from rains to the above mentioned three districts as rains are expected to continue for the next few days. IMD has also forecast heavy rains for most parts of the state from Friday with independent weather bloggers predicting that Chennai and coastal districts will witness heavy rainfall from Thursday night.

Heavy rains were also reported from Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Madurai, and Kanyakumari districts in the state. The state has been receiving heavy rains, though intermittently, since the northeast monsoon (NEM) picked up momentum in the first week of November.

The MeT said thunderstorm with heavy or very heavy rain is likely to occur at isolated places over Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Chengalpattu, Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Theni, Madurai, Pudukkottai and Puducherry on Friday.

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