SCHOOLS DECLARED LEAVE IN TAMILNADU AND PONDICHERRY TODAY-BHARATHIYAR UNIVERSITY EXAMS POSTPONED

Rains are getting severe in TamilNadu because of  low pressures in the Bay Bengal. In chennai more than 17 cm of rain has been recorded. Even in the South rains are severe for the past two days.Many low lying areas are flooded and the people have been moved to safer places. TamilNadu Government has declared leave for schools today . Schools in nilgiris, theni, karaikal, trichy, tiruvannamalai, kanayakumari,ooti, coimbatore, ramanathapuram, dindigul, tirupur, sivagangaihave been declared leave tomorrow by the TamilNadu Government. The Pondicherry Government also has declared leave for all schools and colleges today in pondicherry. Bharathiyar University has also declared leave today. Tha colleges affiliated to this university also has been declared leave. The exams are expected to be postponed on a later date.Due to heavy rains in ooty, 8 people have been reported to be dead.

HURRICANE BILL STRENGTHENS

The hurricane was moving in a north-westerly direction, and on its current track is projected to turn north and largely miss the US coastline. An Air Force reserve hurricane hunter plane that flew into the Atlantic storm indicated "that Bill has strengthened and maximum sustained winds have increased to near 125 MPH," the center said in an interim advisory. That made Bill a Category 3 Hurricane on the Simpson hurricane scale. The Miami-based Hurricane Center said earlier that at 2100 GMT Tuesday, the hurricane was located about 635 miles (1,025 kilometers) east of the Leeward Islands and heading west-northwestward toward the US mainland at nearly 16 mph (26 kph).

The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ends on November 30.The hurricane's projected track is in the Atlantic, "well to the northeast" of the Caribbean's Leeward Islands. The Hurricane Center's extended forecast puts the far northeastern US coastline on the eastern edge of Bill's broad "cone of uncertainty" by Sunday. Tropical Storm Claudette, which blew up in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday and lashed Florida resorts with strong winds and heavy rain, weakened Monday to a tropical depression as it moved across the southern United States.

Tropical Storm Ana, the first named storm of the season, also lost its punch as it moved quickly at maximum winds of 34 mph (55 kph) across the Caribbean, with all tropical storm watches discontinued in the region. In the Pacific, Tropical Storm Guillermo was moving northwest at about 20 mph (33 kph) at 0200 GMT Wednesday. A day after weakening rapidly from a hurricane, the storm was 570 miles (917 km) northeast of Hilo, Hawaii, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center