Scattered heavy to isolated very heavy rainfall was predicted over north coastal Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry till Saturday morning as a "deep depression" moved westwards and lay centred about 150 km east of Chennai Thursday.

The deep depression was likely to intensify further and move in a west northwest direction and cross north Tamil Nadu and south Andhra Pradesh coast between Chennai and Ongole by Thursday night or Friday early morning, Area Cyclone Warning Centre Director S R Ramanan said in a special bulletin Thursday evening.

• Rain-battered TN seeks Army help

Scattered heavy to isolated very heavy rainfall was likely over north coastal Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry during the 48-hours beginning 0830 hrs Thursday.

Isolated heavy rain was also likely over rest of the state during the same period. Gale force wind speed reaching 55 to 65 kmph was likely along off north coastal Tamil Nadu during the next 36 hours and the sea would be rough to very rough and hence, fishermen have been advised not to venture into the open seas, he said.

Meanwhile, he said Chennai recorded 27 cms of rainfall during the last 24-hours ending at 0830 hrs Thursday morning, while Chennai airport recorded 21 cm.

• Heavy rains shut Chennai airport 

Meanwhile, the Orissa government sounded an alert in all its coastal districts as the depression over the Bay of Bengal intensified.

Collectors of all 10 coastal districts were alerted and asked to monitor the situation and be prepared for any eventuality even though no immediate danger was perceived to the state, official sources said.

The depression had intensified and lay centred 740 km south-south west of Gopalpur over the south-west and adjoining west-central bay, S C Sahu, director of the Cyclone Warning Centre told PTI.

• Army called out in Tamil Nadu 

Sahu said cautionary signal number one had been kept hoisted at Paradip and Gopalpur since Wednesday.

Fishermen had been advised not to venture into the sea as it would remain rough.

The super cyclone, that devastated the Orissa coast six years ago had hit the coast south of Paradip on October 29.

It caused the sea to sweep inside Ersama block of Jagatsinghpur district causing colossal death and destruction.

Incidentally, the cyclonic storm that killed about 10,000 people in Kendrapara district in 1971 had also occurred on October 29.

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