Cyclone Fengal has continued to cause widespread disruption across southern India, with heavy rainfall triggering floods, school closures, and travel bans in multiple states.
The army has been deployed to assist rescue operations in the coastal state of Puducherry, which has recorded the highest rainfall in 30 years.
Soldiers deployed boats to evacuate nearly 200 people from severely affected areas after the cyclone made landfall in the state on 30 November.
Flooding has forced the closure of most shops and businesses and power outages have affected several areas.
The cyclone left 16 people dead in Sri Lanka and three in India on Sunday. Heavy rain caused by the storm affected nearly 139,000 families, according to latest data from the Disaster Management Centre in Colombo.
A 45-year-old man was electrocuted in Chennai in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu after heavy rain snapped a power cable and it fell on him, and another man died while pumping stagnated water.
The government has promised compensation to the families of the three men killed.
State and national disaster response teams have been working since Sunday to rescue stranded people. Tamil Nadu recorded over 40cm rainfall in several areas, which chief minister MK Stalin described as “unprecedented”, CNBC reported.
The neighbouring state of Kerala imposed restrictions on pilgrims to the popular hill shrine of Sabarimala due to heavy rainfall in the districts of Pathanamthitta and Idukki. Authorities warned the pilgrims against entering rivers or bathing near the banks and prohibited trekking along the Azhuthakkadavu-Pampa and the Sathram forest routes until weather conditions improve. Though rainfall eased through Monday, state officials left the restrictions in place as a precautionary measure.
Tamil Nadu remains severely affected. Villupuram, a critical transport link between the capital Chennai and the south, is inundated and the Vikravandi-Mundiyampakkam bridge is still under water. This has forced the Southern Railway to suspend train operations along the route, disrupting express and superfast services.
The Chennai airport, which had suspended operations on Saturday, however, resumed services on 1 December.
The nearby regions of Cuddalore, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri are also in crisis, with floods sweeping away vehicles and rendering roads impassable.
Relentless rain has caused dams to overflow in Kanchipuram district and the overflowing Thenpennai river has cut off road links in Tiruvannamalai.
The state government has distributed over 900,000 food packets in the affected areas so far and housed some 1,000 people in 32 relief camps.
Another southern state, Karnataka, has closed schools and colleges in Mysuru, Kolar and Chikkaballapur areas. Puducherry has extended the closure of educational institutions in Karaikal.
Puducherry chief minister N Rangasamy said a detailed report assessing the damage from the cyclone is being prepared for the central government. “We are committed to ensuring that those affected receive the necessary support,” added home minister A Namassivayam.
The India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for Kerala’s Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, and Kannur districts, warning of extremely heavy rainfall. The storm, now weakened into a low-pressure area, is expected to intensify over the Arabian Sea near the Kerala-Karnataka coast by 3 December.
