Chest-high waters yesterday surged down the streets of India’s southern city Chennai with eight people killed in intense floods as Cyclone Michaung was set to make landfall on the southeast coast.
The cyclone was forecast to hit the coast of Andhra Pradesh state later yesterday as a “severe cyclonic storm,” packing winds up to 100kph, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
In Chennai, vehicles were seen floating on raging torrents, homes were flooded and a crocodile was spotted swimming the streets in the city.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In some parts of the flooded city, people used boats to get out of their flooded neighborhoods to the safety of government relief shelters.
The IMD warned of “exceptionally heavy rainfall” in some areas.
“We are facing the worst storm in recent memory,” Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin said in a statement late on Monday.
Police yesterday said that eight people had been killed in the state capital of Chennai.
They included some who drowned, as well as one person hit by a falling tree, another electrocuted by live wires in the water and one crushed by a falling wall.
Trees were uprooted and vehicles swept away due to the heavy rains, according to images posted on social media.
Taiwanese Apple iPhone manufacturers Hon Hai Precision Industry and Pegatron, as well as automaker Hyundai suspended their operations in Tamil Nadu due to the storm, local media reported.
The cyclone is expected to hit India’s southeast coast near the town of Bapatla, on the 300km stretch between Nellore and Machilipatnam.
Hundreds of people from coastal villages in the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh have moved inland, with emergency rescue teams deployed to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone’s landfall, according to local media.
Sea surges of waves up to 1.5m above normal tide levels are expected when the cyclone makes landfall, the IMD said.
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