Cyclone Mandous brings heavy rain & uproots trees, Chennai streets flooded

Cyclone Mandous struck the Tamil Nadu coast late on Friday night with a wind speed of 75 km an hour that uprooted trees and brought heavy rainfall in its wake. The cyclone has now weakened into a deep depression.

Around 200 trees have been uprooted in Chennai and streets in the city were flooded due to heavy rainfall.Trees were uprooted on East Coast Road and GST Road in Chengalpattu district as well. Both districts face power cuts.

The cyclone weakened into a deep depression in the early hours of Saturday, and lay centred 55 km north-northwest of Mahabalipuram and about 40 km west-southwest of Chennai. It will further weaken into a depression by this afternoon. Light to moderate rainfall is predicted in most places, with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places across north interior Tamil Nadu, according to the weather office.

However, major damage was averted due to proactive measures by the authorities, officials said.

Although the cyclone has weakened three districts are on Red Alert: Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram that border Chennai, and Villupuram just south of them. Schools and colleges in Chennai and 11 other districts of the state have already been shut.

Mandous was earlier classified as ‘Severe Cyclonic Storm’, the fourth highest on the scale, accompanied by winds gusting to 89-117 km per hour. It has since come down to ‘Cyclonic Storm’ with winds at 62-88 km/hour. (The most severe on the scale is ‘Super Cyclonic Storm’, with winds at 222+ km an hour.)

Besides stationing National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams in ten districts, the Tamil Nadu government has opened more than 5,000 relief centres. In Chengalpattu district alone 1,058 families have moved to 28 such centres.

Nearly 400 personnel of the NDRF and State Disaster Response Force teams have been stationed in coastal regions, including near the Cauvery delta area.