Chennai (The Hawk): The schools and colleges in Chennai and five other districts in Tamil Nadu will be closed on Friday and Saturday because heavy rain is expected.
After the IMD predicted that it would rain a lot, schools in Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Vellore, and Ranipet were given the day off.
The weather service has also issued a red alert for November 11 for the districts of Ranipet, Tiruvallur, and Kancheepuram. On November 12, Dindigul, Theni, and The Nilgiris were given a Red alert. In the next 24 hours, this will happen because of a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal.
Some places in these districts are likely to get heavy to very heavy or even extremely heavy rain on November 11 and 12.
In the next 48 hours, there are likely to be thunderstorms, lightning, and heavy to very heavy rains in and around Chennai. In the next 48 hours, the city has been given an orange alert.
In a related event, the water from Chembarambakkam lake has been let out, flooding several suburbs of Chennai, such as Iyyappanthangal, Porur, and Mangad.
Since more rain is expected, officials in the Kancheepuram district said that water could not be pumped out and that water would eventually drain out.
When it rains in the district, activists and social workers said that this happens all the time. R. Balakrishnan, a Porur activist and social worker, told IANS, "This is becoming routine, and even though many requests and petitions have been sent, nothing has happened to widen the canals that connect to the Porur lake."
(Inputs from Agencies)