Precautions muted cyclone impact on south-east India
ACCURATE forecasting and the evacuation of several hundred thousand people helped avert any loss of life after a cyclone battered southeast India, authorities said last Thursday (26), as rescuers worked to restore power and clear fallen trees.
Cyclone Nivar made landfall near Puducherry, packing gusts of up to 130 kilometres (80 miles) per hour, uprooting trees and bringing torrential rain of up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) in a few hours in some parts.
Thousands of emergency personnel were deployed in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry as authorities began restoring power that had been suspended to prevent damage to the electricity grid.
Rescue workers used heavy machinery to remove hundreds of trees uprooted in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Electricity pylons were also toppled in some areas, and several flash floods were reported.
One woman in Tamil Nadu died after a boundary wall collapsed following heavy rains last Wednesday (25), local media reported.
But this was not confirmed by local authorities who said there was no loss of life.
“People have given us full cooperation,” said O Panneerselvam, deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu state. “It’s a solace that nothing untoward happened and the weakening of the cyclone is good news,” he said, adding that 250,000 people were housed in shelters in the south Indian state as a precaution.
Initially classified as a “very severe cyclonic storm” as it swirled in the Bay of Bengal, Nivar weakened after landfall into a “severe cyclonic storm”, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
“No major damage has been reported in Tamil Nadu. We are assessing the situation, but things are returning to normalcy,” an official at the State Disaster Response Force said.
Ahead of the arrival of the storm – a regular and often deadly occurrence in the Bay of Bengal – local authorities in the state declared a public holiday last Wednesday and Thursday, shutting everything except emergency services.
Flights to Chennai, the state’s capital, were suspended until last Thursday morning and metro train services in the city were halted.
No evacuation orders were issued in Sri Lanka, but heavy rains were forecast, particularly in the north of the island nation, and fishermen were advised to stay on land.