Tree falls on Chennai petrol pump, wall crashes on cars as Mandous hits | VIDEOS
Cyclonic storm Mandous has weakened into a deep depression and will weaken further into a depression by late Saturday, the weather office said after it made landfall late Friday night.
Cyclonic storm Mandous tore past the Tamil Nadu coast near Mahabalipuram late Friday night and early this morning, leaving a trail of flooded streets and uprooted trees and causing damage to buildings and electricity supply lines in its wake. State capital Chennai and nearby areas in Chengalpattu district received heavy rainfall. Mandous has weakened since landfall, the regional weather office said but warned of continuing heavy rain in some parts. The met department said it had 'moved northwest with a speed of 15 km per during the past six hours and weakened into a deep depression over north Tamil Nadu'.
Civic agencies, including the Greater Chennai Corporation, have been working hard to remove fallen trees and restore electricity supply that has been suspended in many parts of the city, news agency PTI said. Initial estimates say 100 trees have fallen and power supply has been affected in five areas. No deaths have been reported so far but over 9,000 people have been evacuated, the state's disaster management minister, KKSSR Ramachandran, said.
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Videos and photographs of Mandous' impact have been shared by news agency ANI, including scary footage of a tree that fell on a petrol station in Chennai.
Another showed strong winds gusting in the Pattinapakkam area.
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A third showed flooded roads in the Arumbakkam area.
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Chennai Police this morning reopened the important East Coast Road for vehicular movement; the highway had been closed last night during landfall.
Roads closed in the city, such as the Kamarajar Salai that runs along the Marina Beach and leads to the Chennai Central railway station, were also re-opened.
There were also photographs of uprooted trees and flooded roads from the posh Nungambakkam residential area of the city.
Another set of photographs showed a collapsed wall in the city's busy T Nagar shopping district that fell on three cars parked nearby. Fortunately no one was present in the cars when this happened, ANI reported.
Apart from roads, the Chennai airport was also closed for 24 hours starting 6 am Friday; 30 domestic and international flights were cancelled and the airport runway was closed once again this morning, affecting 31 flights.
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin has said all the precautionary measures were taken and that officers are 'regularly monitoring the situation'.
Heavy rains also lashed several parts of south coastal and Rayalaseema districts of Andhra Pradesh early Saturday after Mandous made landfall.
With input from ANI, PTI