Heavy downpour in many parts of Vellore and the neighbouring towns of Ambur, Vaniyambadi, Arani, Gudiyatham, Tiruvannamalai, Chengam, Polur and Tirupattur for the past few days has brought relief from the searing heat.
Continuous rain prevailed in most parts of Vellore, Tirupattur and Tiruvannamalai districts. Streets in many of the low-lying areas in Vellore such as Sampath Nagar, Salavanpet and Kansalpet were inundated. Frequent power cuts were reported in many areas due to the rain on Thursday. “Most of the roads are slushy and waterlogged. Drains were not de-silted to discharge excess rainwater,” said V. Satish, a resident of Vellore.
Ranipet received the highest rainfall since Wednesday night measuring 170.50 mm, followed by Tiruvannamalai (145.40 mm) and Tirupattur (112.60 mm). As of 8.30 a.m. on Thursday, among the major towns and taluks in Ranipet, Sholinghur received the highest rain (82 mm). Kaveripakkam received 32 mm rain. In Tirupattur, ACS Mill received 70.20 mm rain. Vaniyambadi received 14 mm, Tirupattur town 9 mm and Ambur 6 mm.
In Tiruvannamalai, Vembakkam, Kilpennathur, Cheyyar and Polur received good rain. In Vellore, Poonai, Gudiyatham, Melalathur and Katpadi received continuous showers.
Meanwhile, flood alert for the third time has been issued by the Water Resources Department (WRD) to villages located along the banks of the Thenpennai River at Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai.
At present, 18,854 cusecs of water is being released from the Sathanur dam into the river. Water from other neighbouring dams such as Kuppanatham (170 cusecs), Mirugandanadhi (115 cusecs) and Shenbagathoppu (10 cusecs) in Tiruvannamalai are also being released.
