Rain wreaks havoc in Nilgiris district, schools closed

NEW DELHI: Rain wreaked havoc in the Nilgiris district uprooting trees, and causing power outages. The administration on Monday declared a holiday for schools in four taluks following heavy and incessant rains in the district. District collector Lakshmi Bhavya Tanneeru announced that the schools in Udhagamandalam, Kundah, Coonoor and Kotagiri will be closed today. The southwest monsoon which has intensified in the district created havoc uprooting trees and damaging EB poles.

Nilgiris district has been experiencing heavy rains for the past six days affecting normal life in this tourist paradise in the state. Gales accompanying the rains uprooted trees and damaged at least 30 cars in and around Udhagamandalam, a senior official said. About 30 EB poles have been damaged. For the second day today, strong gales uprooted a tree and tossed it on a TNSTC bus bound to Chennai, here, an official said. Though the bus was partly damaged in the incident, the crew and the passengers escaped unhurt.

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Rescue operations ongoing

On Sunday too, a similar incident occurred on the Gudalur-Udhagamandalam road when a tree fell on the state government bus. However, no one was hurt. Trees were uprooted at eleven places in Udhagamandalam and Kotagiri and in eight places in Gudalur. As a result, the traffic in several parts in the town, which has been facing power outages since Sunday night, has been affected for nearly four hours, the official said.

The civic authorities are currently engaged in clearing the trees from the roads. The district administration has already alerted the police fire and rescue service personnel to be all geared up to respond to emergency if any. According to a senior official, Coonoor, Kullakamby and Kotagiri zones have received more cumulative rain than the normal level as measured by the decennial average for the period.