Cautionary Signal,officials discuss steps to tackle Fani

Based on the alert from the IMD, chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan along with commissioner of revenue administration and disaster management K Satyagopal conducted a high-level meeting at the state Secretariat interacting with the collectors of coastal districts. City Corporation Commissioner G Prakash, commissioner of municipal administration D Karthikeyan, senior police officials and top officials from fisheries and PWD explained the mitigation plan being worked out.

S Balachandran, regional director, IMD Chennai told reporters that the deep depression lies exactly 1,500 kms to the southeast direction from Chennai and termed the development as a rare phenomenon in summer after a period of 53 years. The deep depression is likely to strengthen as a cyclone by Saturday noon and the system will move towards the northwest direction along the northern coast of the state, said Balachandran warning fishermen not to venture into the sea.

The weather office also forecast moderate to heavy rainfall for Chennai and adjoining coastal districts that are facing severe shortage of water due to scorching summer. A weather bulletin read that the wind speed would gush up to 90-100 km per hour (Kmph) and expected to peak around 115 Kmph.

Head of state disaster management authority K Satyagopal said six National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are kept ready to handle evacuation and flooding. The government through local bodies had identified 4,339 vulnerable areas and the collectors have been issued plan of action to handle mitigation, he said. “We have sent circulars to the coastal districts’ administrations seeking all preventive measures in place and 30,000 first responders are ready to evacuate people from critical areas,” Satyagopal told reporters at Ezhilagam.

Tamil Nadu has witnessed Gaja and Ockhi and the lesson learnt from the cyclones has been added to the current plan of action and evacuation will be the top priority along the coastal villages. Fishermen have been advised to safeguard their boats and nets, a senior fisheries department official who took part in the review told DT Next.