Southern districts have a wet day; normal life affected

Madurai: Many southern districts in the state experienced rain throughout the day on Tuesday as many of the roads in city turned muddy and slushy while Tuticorin collector Sandeep Nanduri declared a holiday for schools.

As the rains started at around 8am, office goers and school students were affected. Many roads including Anna Nagar road, Sathamangalam road and connecting streets had potholes filled with rain water.

“I misjudged a pothole to be shallow and drove and my bike through it but skid and fell as it was very deep,” said K Shankar of Anna Nagar.

Deepavali shopping in the streets around Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple was affected as the roads, many of which were under construction, turned muddy and slushy.

Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts experienced thundershowers throughout the night as roads and low-lying areas became inundated.

Tirunelveli district had an average rainfall of 18.52mm for 24 hours till 8am on Tuesday and 5.58mm on average till 4pm.

The water flow in the Courtallam falls, which was low for the last five days, was heavy on Tuesday and tourists were not allowed. Water gushed beyond the safety ring in the main falls from 8am onwards. Theni district also experienced mild to heavy showers.

The Sothuparai dam in Periyakulam reached its full capacity of 126ft as rain continued in catchment areas. Water was released from the dam for irrigation by Theni collector Pallavi M Baldev.

The inflow to the major dams Mullaiperiyar and Vaigai also increased marginally.

The inflow of Mullaiperiyar which was 735 cusecs increased to 1,408 cusecs on Tuesday. Vaigai dam’s inflow also went up from 544 cusecs on Monday to 1,007 cusecs on Tuesday.