Indus Valley Times

CHENNAI,DEC 9: Heavy rains battered Chennai and its surrounding areas on Friday evening even as cyclone Mandous is set to make its landfall on the coast between Puducherry and Sriharikota around Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) during midnight of December 9 to the early hours of December 10.

Power supply has been disrupted in Mahabalipuram. Transport services also remain disrupted.

Several families residing in low-lying areas have been shifted to relief centres.

In neighbouring Puducherry, 15 houses collapsed in Pillaichavady village as high tides under the impact of the cyclone eroded the coast on Friday.

A holiday has been declared for schools and colleges on Saturday in 15 districts including Chennai, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Kallakurichi, Vellore, and Ranipet.

From 6 PM today till midnight, the departures of several flights from Chennai have been cancelled. However, trains including suburban services are in operation.

Tamil Nadu state transport buses will not ply two hours before the cyclone touches the land and two hours after it.

Schools and colleges were closed in several districts today.

Earlier in the day, several parts of Tamil Nadu witnessed light to moderate rainfall with some places receiving heavy showers. Several weather stations in and around Chennai clocked rainfall of 7 cm each in the morning; it was light to moderate in other regions.

The IMD said Doppler weather radars are monitoring the cyclone which weakened into a cyclonic storm on December 9 after being a severe cyclonic storm for less than 24 hours.

Mandous, pronounced ‘man-dous’ is an Arabic word and it means treasure box. The name was reportedly picked by the United Arab Emirates.

16,000 police personnel, 1,500 Home guards, a 40-member team of TN State Disaster Response Force, and 400 National Disaster Response Force personnel, in addition to 12 District Disaster Response Force teams are on standby.

-PTI