NEW DELHI: Cyclonic storm Fengal crossed the North Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts early on Sunday morning, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The cyclone, which made landfall near Puducherry between 10:30 pm and 11:30 pm IST, brought wind speeds of 70-80 km/h, gusting up to 90 km/h.
As a result of the cyclone’s impact, parts of Puducherry and Tamil Nadu experienced heavy rainfall, leading to a rise in water levels in dams. In Tamil Nadu, heavy rainfall caused the Veedur Dam to overflow, a video showed, putting 10 villages in Villupuram district at risk of flooding.
The IMD reported that Fengal is expected to weaken into a deep depression as it moves west-southwestward in the coming hours. “CS Fengal lay over the same region 30km North of Cuddalore and 40km East of Villupuram. It will slowly move westwards and gradually weaken into a Deep depression during 6 hours,” IMD said.
In Chennai, the beaches saw high tides and rough sea conditions early in the morning. The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) issued a weather forecast predicting “isolated heavy to very heavy” rainfall in the city for Sunday.
Earlier, operations at Chennai airport were halted on Saturday due to strong winds and heavy rains from Cyclone Fengal, leading to several flight cancellations and affecting hundreds of passengers.