Ockhi effect felt in Delta too, caution signal 2 hoisted at Nagapattinam port

As the sea was rough and with rains expected to continue on Friday too, cyclone warning signal 2 was hoisted at Nagapattinam port. In Nagapattinam, fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea. As a result, they have kept off work for the sixth consecutive day. It is estimated that around 70,000 fishermen who have been involved in fishing with 4,000 country boats and 1,795 mechanised boats in Nagapattinam district were off shore. While Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts have been experiencing moderate rain for the past five days, places like Tiruvarur, Needamangalam, Valaigaman, Thanjavur, Tiruvaiyaru, Papanasam, Nanilam, Mannargudi and Thiruthuraipoondi experienced heavy rains from Wednesday night.

Though the showers have come as a boon to a section of farmers who had sowed samba early (their crops are more than 60-70 days old), for others whose crops are at nascent stage the rain has turned out to be a bane. They fear a heavy loss in case of inundation.

As the Meteorological department has forecast more rain, the Water Resources Organisation (WRO) of PWD reduced the discharge from Mettur (from 6,000 cusecs to 2,000 cusecs) on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the inflow into the dam was also slightly up with 2,973 cusecs on Thursday evening compared to 1,152 on Wednesday.

Due to heavy rains, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur and Pudukkottai districts have declared a holiday for educational institutions as a precautionary measure. Tiruchy, the hub of central districts, experienced mild to heavy downpour at frequent intervals throughout the day on Thursday.

Reports from Nellai said that due to the Ockhi’s onslaught the Courtallam falls is witnessing a heavy flow. As a result, bathing has been banned at the falls. 

Vellore district, which was under a dry spell for the past few weeks, received a total of 67 mm rain in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am on Thursday, resulting in most of the irrigation tanks in the district continuing to receive copious inflow. The three dams _ Mordhana, Rajathoppu and Andiappanur _ have reached the full tank level. Arcot town recorded the highest amount of 15 mm followed by Vellore with 10.6 mm.

While 126 irrigation tanks are brimming, another 48 tanks have attained 75 % storage and 59 more have reached the half-way mark. The remaining 286 tanks have nearly 25 per cent storage of their total capacity.