Cyclone Mora reaches northeast, many houses damaged in Mizoram

Strong winds and heavy showers lashed much of Mizoram on Tuesday, damaging at least 80 buildings, including the district hospital in Siaha.

The severe cyclonic storm Mora reached India’s northeast on Tuesday, but was expected to weaken to a depression and unlikely to cause major damage in the region, Met department officials said.

Many trees were uprooted in Mizoram as cyclone Mora hit the northeast on Tuesday. (HT Photo)

The storm reached Chittagong in Bangladesh on Tuesday morning and reached Aizawl in Mizoram by late afternoon.

A bulletin issued by the Meteorological department at 5pm on Tuesday said the system was very likely to continue to move north-northeastwards and weaken into a cyclonic storm and further into a depression.

A car gets crushed under a tree that got uprooted in Mizoram.

Several parts of Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur received heavy to very heavy rainfall due to the system on Tuesday.

Many trees fell on houses in Mizoram as cyclone Mora hit the northeast.

Officials in state capital Aizawl said they were not been able to assess the damage immediately as the southern part as electricity and telecommunication links were snapped since Tuesday morning.

“We have a report of about 20 houses being damaged in Khawbung village of Champhai district. About 10 houses including a church have been also been damaged in Serchhip district,” a government spokesperson said.

The Met department has predicted similar conditions across the northeast on Wednesday as well. Winds with speeds ranging 45-80 km per hour are expected in south Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur.

There could be damage to thatched huts, power and communication lines due to breaking of tree branches, roads, paddy crops, banana, papaya trees and orchards in Mizoram and Tripura on Wednesday, the bulletin said.