Chennai: Four people died due to lightning in different parts of Chennai cyclone fangal (Pronounced Feenzal) 9 cm to 13 cm rainfall occurred in various parts of the city since Saturday morning.
In its 7 pm bulletin, the IMD said the forward area of the spiral band associated with the cyclone has entered land, and the system may take three to four hours to move further and cross the coast near Puducherry.
On Sunday, the weather system may continue to bring rain after moving inland, as the IMD has issued an orange alert for heavy to very heavy rainfall for 13 districts, including Chennai and three neighboring districts of the city. Red alert was issued for extremely heavy rain in Villupuram, Kallakurichi and Cuddalore as they are close to the landslide location.
Bloggers said the cyclone was trapped between high-pressure peaks, and most of the clouds surrounding the storm along the coast disappeared by Saturday evening due to strong wind shear.
“Cyclone Fengal will remain stuck along the Cheyyur-Marakkanam coast till Sunday morning,” blogger Pradeep John said in an online post.
Coastal districts of Tamil Nadu and Chennai witnessed prolonged rain and strong winds on Saturday. Flooding occurred and trees fell, but not as much as feared. Public transport was kept to a minimum and since it was a weekend and schools, colleges and most offices were closed, people hardly ventured out.
The center of the cyclonic storm, which slowed down from 10 kmph to 7 kmph, changed direction from 90 km southeast of Chennai to 90 km south of the city after 2.30 pm.
Bad weather: 13 flights canceled
Thirteen flights to and from Chennai were canceled on Friday due to bad weather and operational reasons.
After the formation of Cyclone Fengal was confirmed by the IMD, two IndiGo flights, one from Chennai to Mangaluru and the other from Chennai to Trichy, were cancelled. Their return flights were also cancelled.
In a travel advisory, IndiGo informed passengers that the prevailing weather conditions have affected flights to and from Chennai, Trichy, Tuticorin, Madurai, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam. It asked passengers to check flight status online before reaching the airport.
Similarly, five Air India Express flights departing from Coimbatore at 7.25 am, Bhubaneswar at 7.45 am, Hyderabad at 9.20 am, Bengaluru at 9.35 am and Pune at 8.45 pm were canceled citing operational reasons. .
