A team of National Disaster Rescue Force with 60 personnel from Arakkonam, led by Deputy Commander Vaithyalingam, arrived here on Tuesday.
As heavy rainfall has been forecast in the four southern districts till December 4 in the wake of cyclonic activity in the Bay of Bengal, preparations are being made on a war-footing to neutralise the adverse impact of the downpour and possible flooding.
After having a brief discussion with Collector V. Vishnu to understand the preparations put in place by the district administration, Mr. Vaithyalingam divided his team into four groups to be positioned at vulnerable points along the Tamirabharani watercourse and also at one of the 13 coastal hamlets in the district.
Though the weathermen has predicted that the southern districts of Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari would start receiving rainfall from December 1 and even sounded ‘red alert’ for this region due to low pressure near Sri Lanka expected to become a cyclone, no part of these four districts witnessed even a drizzle on Tuesday. The sky was clear and bright throughout the day without any breeze from the north-east direction that usually brings rains during monsoon.
Thoothukudi received a 40-member NDRF team.
