Heavy rain in the south killed at least 25 people India with Sri Lanka The weather forecaster said Thursday that it may ease in the next few days.
The Indian Meteorological Department predicts that light to moderate rain will occur in most of the affected areas, and there will be occasional flooding on roads and low-lying areas in some areas.
“The worst has passed, and occasionally it will rain,” said Pradeep John, an amateur forecaster who has received widespread attention in India’s worst-hit state of Tamil Nadu.
“It will rain intermittently today, there will be a lot of rest time, nothing terrible.”
Officials said on Wednesday that rain brought by low pressure killed 20 people in neighboring Sri Lanka, most of whom drowned, while landslides caused 5 injuries.
Five people were killed in Tamil Nadu.
Many areas of Chennai, the state capital of India’s automobile manufacturing center, were flooded on Thursday. Government officials used water pumps to pump water. Some residents were trapped waist-deep.
Officials said thousands of people in low-lying areas were moved to safety.
Many schools and universities in Tamil Nadu are still closed, and some train services are still suspended.
The northeast monsoon in India usually lasts from October to December, bringing heavy rain, especially in the south.
(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan in Chennai; Writing by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Robert Birsel)
