Heavy wind, rain lash Coimbatore city

With heavy winds and rain lashing the city on Sunday afternoon, tree branches fell down in several areas, blocking roads and electricity poles were damaged leading to power disruptions.

The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) was clearing branches, working on damaged electricity poles, and had restored supply in all the affected areas by late Sunday evening.

One of the Swachh Bharat Ambassadors for ward 54 (Ramnagar) S. Natarajan says that huge branches of at least seven trees, which are several years old, had fallen on the roads in Ramnagar and in a couple of locations the entire road was blocked.

The fire service personnel, police, and Coimbatore Corporation officials inspected the area and cleared the branches and the debris. There was no damage to power lines in Ramnagar. Electricity supply was cut for about three hours and restored, he said.

An official of Tangedco said there were reports of damages to electricity infrastructure mainly in Tatabad and Vadavalli.

Tangedco will know the number of poles damaged only on Monday. But its personnel had started clearing the branches that had fallen on the lines and poles, repairing the damages and had restored supply by evening in all the areas.

Staff Reporter adds from Erode: Many parts of the district received widespread rainfall while heavy rains accompanied by gusty winds lashed a few places leading to power disruption here on Sunday evening.

Many villages in Modakurichi and Kodumudi blocks received good rainfall that lasted for over an hour as strong winds disrupted power supply that was restored after an hour.

The city received less rainfall while places in Sathyamangalam and Gobichettipalayam blocks also received less rainfall in the evening.

However, farmers fear that strong winds could have damaged their standing banana plantations which they will know only on Monday morning.

Revenue officials said that rainfall was moderate and any damage to property would be known only later.