New Delhi: Cyclone Mandous made landfall late Friday night, crossing the coast in Tamil Nadu with a wind speed of 75 km an hour. The cyclone has now weakened into a deep depression. The cyclone made landfall around 10.30 pm on Friday and crossed the coast near Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) in Tamil Nadu around 1.30 am, uprooting hundreds of trees in Chengalpattu and neighbouring Chennai.
Chennai received up to 115 mm of rain. “Around 200 trees have fallen and we have been clearing them since night,” Gagandeep Singh, Commissioner, Greater Chennai Corporation was quoted as saying by NDTV, adding “major damage has been averted as we had secured many hoardings early”. The city also witnessed waterlogging. As work of clearing fallen trees is underway, Chennai city and Chengalpattu districts are facing power cuts.
In Kovalam, adjoining Mamallapuram, boats have suffered damages besides shops along the seashore. “The tin roofs of shops have got blown away. Fisheries and revenue officials are examining damages to boats” said Shobana Thangam, President of Kovalam Village Panchayat.
Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh may also be affected. “[The cyclone] would continue to move west-northwestwards and cross north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts between Puducherry and Sriharikota around Mahabalipuram… during midnight of today, the 9th December to early hours of 10th December,” a statement by India Meteorological Department read.
The cyclone was named by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a member of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). In Arabic, it means “treasure box” and is pronounced as “Man-Dous.”
