Authorities in Puducherry have declared Tuesday, December 3, a vacation for both government and private schools as well as colleges due to the continuous, severe rainfall caused by Cyclone Fengal, which made landfall close to the union territory on Saturday.
Cyclone Fengal decreased on Sunday after making landfall between Puducherry and nearby Tamil Nadu on November 30, but it has been causing severe downpours. In the union territory, the Army intervened to rescue people who were stuck in flooded streets. Following intense rainfall and flooding, some areas of Tamil Nadu also experienced hardship.
The remains of the cyclonic storm over north coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry drifted almost westward and diminished into a “Well Marked Low Pressure Area” at 5:30 a.m. on Monday, according to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) most recent bulletin. Around December 3, the IMD predicted that the remaining low pressure area would surface over the southeast and adjacent east-central Arabian Sea off the shores of north Kerala and Karnataka.
Due to Cyclone Fengal’s intense rains, Education Minister A Namachivayam declared a holiday for all public and private schools as well as institutions on Tuesday, December 3. Cyclone Fengal, which has already weakened into a low-pressure region over north interior Tamil Nadu that extends into south interior Karnataka, the IMD on Monday warned of heavy rains in Kerala.
On Monday, five northern districts—Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, and Malappuram—were placed under red alert. Kottayam and Pathanamthitta were placed on a yellow alert, while the districts of Palakkad, Thrissur, Idukki, Alappuzha, and Ernakulam are on an orange alert.
Cyclone Fengal is also anticipated to bring rain to Bengaluru and other portions of Karnataka during the next two days, the IMD warned on Monday. Rain had been falling in Bengaluru since Sunday night, and IMD authorities predicted that coastal Karnataka and portions of South Interior Karnataka would see light to moderate rainfall on Tuesday.
Tuesday is also predicted to bring “heavy to very heavy rainfall” to the Dakshina Kannada district administration, which was placed under an orange alert on Monday. In Dakshina Kannada, all government, aided, private, and anganwadi schools as well as pre-university colleges up to class 12 would be closed on December 3 as a precaution.