A second landslide hit the Tamil Nadu temple town of Tiruvannamalai Monday afternoon, a day after a first led to a boulder falling on a residential building and trapping five to seven people, of whom at least one has died.
The first took place Sunday at 4.30 pm on the lower slopes of the famous Annamalaiyar Hill after heavy rainfall – courtesy Cyclone Fengal, which crossed the coast Saturday afternoon near capital Chennai – battered the district.
Rescue ops – aided by a team of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai – are ongoing, but have been hampered by heavy rain and the threat of another boulder balanced precariously further uphill. Fortunately, however, two of the seven trapped have been rescued so far.
The second landslide was at a spot near a local temple.
The southern state has received heavy rainfall since Fengal made landfall.
That rainfall continued Monday, two days later, with Viluppuram district in northern Tamil Nadu battling unprecedented floods; washed out bridges and overflowing virtually blocked access to villages and residential colonies, as also damaging acres of crops and affecting rail traffic.
Over in western Tamil Nadu, parts of Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts also saw record floods. Uthangarai in Krishnagiri got 50 centimetres in 24 hours till 8.30 am, while Villupuram received 42 cm, Harur in Dharmapuri 33 cm, and Cuddalore and Tiruvannamalai 16 cm.
Tragic videos have emerged online of vehicles, including large buses at the bus station in Uthangiri, where it has rained for 14 hours straight, being dragged off the road by floodwaters.
A senior Weather Department official told news agency PTI the extremely heavy rainfall in parts of Tamil Nadu was due to the remnants of the cyclone, which is now positioned as a strong low-pressure area over the northern part of the state.
In fact, so strong are these remnants that rainfall alerts have also been sounded for northern Kerala and southern Karnataka. The system is expected to intensify as it moves to the Arabian Sea, passing over northern Kerala and Karnataka by December 3, the India Meteorological Department said.
Meanwhile, over the weekend a part of the airport in Chennai was flooded and hundreds of passengers were impacted after multiple flight cancellations. Operations were suspended till 4 am Sunday.
At least two people have died so far, one of whom was a migrant worker who tried to withdraw cash from an ATM in Chennai. He was reportedly electrocuted.
READ | 2 Killed, Chennai Flooded, Airport Shut As Fengal Makes Landfall
Fengal skirted the coast of Sri Lanka earlier this week, killing at least 12 people including six children.
With input from agencies
