PUDUCHERRY: Accurate forecasting and the evacuation of several hundred thousand people helped avert any loss of life after a cyclone clobbered southeast India, authorities said on Thursday, as rescuers worked to restore power and clear fallen trees.
Nivar made landfall at 3:05 am near Puducherry, packing gusts of up to 130 kilometres per hour, uprooting trees and bringing torrential rain of up to 30 centimetres 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.
“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 southern state as a precaution.
Rescue workers were using heavy machinery to remove hundreds of trees uprooted in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Initially classified as a “very severe cyclonic storm” as it swirled in the Bay of Bengal, Nivar weakened after landfall,” the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. — AFP
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