As rescue crews in neighbouring Sri Lanka looked for eight persons who had gone missing in floodwaters, heavy rains battered southern India on Wednesday, with coastal areas anticipating a probable cyclonic storm.
A frequent and lethal threat in the area are cyclones, which are comparable to hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the northwest Pacific.
Government rescue crews were looking for two adults and six children who were washed away by flash floods while riding a tractor and trailer in eastern Sri Lanka, which has been experiencing heavy rains since Tuesday.
One woman was murdered when she was buried in a mudslide, according to a statement released by Sri Lanka’s disaster management department on Wednesday.
Indian weather officials said a deep depression over southwest Bay of Bengal is likely to “intensify into a cyclonic storm” overnight Wednesday to Thursday.
However, it is expected to move slowly, avoiding Sri Lanka’s east coast, and by the time it approaches India’s beach, analysts anticipate that the storm winds will have subsided.
On Wednesday morning, the Meteorological Department of India warned of “very heavy” rains in some areas of Tamil Nadu, a state in the south.
M. K. Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, cautioned people to be “safe while going out” and to “return to coasts immediately” for fishermen.
Although deadly landslides and floods caused by rain are frequent in South Asia, researchers claim that climate change is making them more frequent and severe.
