Morning walkers on Sunday saw high waves inundating several stretches of beaches, including those in Urur Kuppam, Kottivakkam, Palavakkam and Neelankarai. In some places, seawater crossed the sand and the road along the beach.
Neelankarai residents M. Gopalakrishnan and P. Micheal said the water started to rise by 7 a.m. and remained high till 10 a.m. “Perhaps there is some cyclone elsewhere leading to high waves. Heavy wind causes an increase in wave height,” they said. “Even during the recent rains, we saw seawater intrusion. It is nothing new to us,” said K. Nawaz and A. Jayakumar, who had to move to a different spot to play cricket.
Ururkuppam resident Karunakaran said such inundations usually happened during the Tamil month of Aadi (July to August). “We were surprised to see it happening now. Even on Friday, we saw the water rising in some places,” he said.
R. Sundaravadivelu, professor, Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT-M, said there could be several reasons for the high waves. After the 2004 tsunami, a lot of inundation had been occurring along the coast.
“When the waves converge, their height increases and the resultant run-off is what we are seeing. Convergence of the waves is due to the changes in the contour of the sea bed after the tsunami,” he said.
