Cyclone Michaung impacted the southern India coast on Dec 5 afternoon, after extreme downpour led to mountainous waves crashing into coastal towns, submerging roads and taking away precious lives of around nine people, which includes a child. The cyclone led to landfall on the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh nearby the town of Bapatla, barrelling in with winds of up to 110kmh, the weather office conveyed. “The landfall process is going on and is anticipated to complete whilst the next three hours,” the Indian Meteorological Department said on social media platform X.
Parts of the state are anticipated to be pelted with more than 200mm of rain over the next 24 hours, the weather office said earlier, and at least 8,000 people have been taken away from the place where life was in danger. A four-year-old boy lost his life in Tirupati district after a wall fell, said Mr C. Nagaraju, executive director of the state’s disaster management authority. Meanwhile, eight people were murdered in adjacent Tamil Nadu state, officials said.
In Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai, a major electronics and manufacturing hub, residents were seen wading waist-deep through the murky floodwaters, which swept away cars and submerged a runway, leading to the shutdown of one of India’s busiest airports till Dec 5 morning. The downpour has halted and water has receded at Chennai airport, and the airfield was operational from 9am local time (11.30am Singapore time), a spokesperson for the federal civil aviation ministry revealed.