HYDERABAD (AP) – Twelve people died in the downpour before Tropical Storm Michaung made landfall along India’s southeast coast, bringing further torrential rains and strong winds, officials said.
The storm entered Andhra Pradesh state with maximum sustained winds of 90-100 kilometres per hour (kph) and gusts up to 110kph, the Indian Meteorological Department said, adding that the storm would weaken over the next few hours. Authorities were on high alert for heavy showers over the next 24 hours. Another state in the south, Tamil Nadu, experienced days of heavy rains ahead of the storm.
Downpours triggered accidents that led to at least 12 deaths across vulnerable districts, officials told the Press Trust of India news agency.
In Tamil Nadu’s capital city of Chennai, rain from the storm’s outer reaches caused walls to collapse, uprooted trees and submerged roads and cars in knee-deep waters.
Videos showed water streaming onto the city’s airport tarmac, forcing authorities to temporarily shut it down and cancel flights. The downpours have since begun to recede, and the airport has re-opened, but many parts of the city remained flooded.
Rains also pounded parts of Odisha state in the east, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or severe damage.
In Andhra Pradesh, where the storm made landfall near Ongole district, officials shut down schools and evacuated more than 9,000 people from coastal and low-lying areas. Parts of the state saw as much as 390 millimetres of rain before the storm closed in, putting officials on high alert as winds uprooted trees and damaged crops.
India’s Meteorological Department said rains could continue over the next few days.
Michaung is listed as a Severe Cyclonic Storm in the department’s cyclone classification system due to its wind speed.
In Tamil Nadu, authorities set up thousands of relief camps in coastal areas. Teams of the National Disaster Response Force and other agencies sent rescuers with boats to evacuate hundreds of people stranded on roads and inside flooded homes.
