Red alert to TN: Govt gears up to face cyclone Fani

 Cyclone Fani in the Bay of Bengal is expected to bring heavy rainfall and brute winds to coastal Tamilnadu and Puducherry next week and the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued ‘red alert’ in the State for 30 April and 1 May.

A meeting was chaired by Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan at the Secretariat today during which strategies were devised to minimise the damage. Special teams will be formed soon, sources said.

The low-pressure area over the Indian Ocean adjoining Bay of Bengal is expected to intensify into a depression in the next 24 hours. The cyclone has been named Fani. IMD has warned that Cyclone Fani could cross the north Tamilnadu coast on 30 April and bring much-needed rains to the Chennai’s parched reservoirs.

The alert said “rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy falls at a few places with extremely heavy at isolated places” is expected during the two days in Tamilnadu. Wind speed would touch 90-100 kmph gusting to 115 kmph along and off north Tamilnadu and Puducherry and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh districts coasts from the afternoon of 30 April, it added.

The department has advised fishermen against venturing out to sea in the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal areas until 1 May. The statement said that sea conditions will intensify from rough to very rough to high between 26 and 30 April.

“The cyclone is very likely to move northwestwards along and off the east coast of Sri Lanka near north Tamilnadu coast on 30 April,” the department said.