Cyclone Michaung intensifies; orange alert for Chennai, red for Tiruvallur district for next 24 hours
Cyclone Michaung: The Chennai city has been battered with heavy rainfall as Michaung, which instensified into a severe cyclonic storm Monday. In the wake of the heavy rainfall, that left parts of the city submerged, the Chennai airport has been shut till 11 pm today.
FollowThe Chennai city has been battered with heavy rainfall as Michaung, which instensified into a severe cyclonic storm Monday, neared the Tamil Nadu coast on its way to Andhra Pradesh. Cyclone Michaung is expected to make a landfall in Andhra Pradesh on December 5 around noon.
The weather department has issued ‘red alert for Thiruvallur district, while an Orange alert has also been issued for Chennai, Ranipet, Kanchipuram and Chengalpattu districts.
In its latest bulletin, IMD has said that Cyclone Michaung has intensified into a ‘Severe Cyclonic Storm’ and lies about 90 km east- northeast of Chennai. Extreme rainfall over Chennai and its suburbs which has been on since Monday morning, is likely to continue till late evening as Cyclone Michaung is very close to the coast. It is likely to move northwards and cross the coast between Nellore and Machilipatnam near Bapatla on December 5 forenoon.
In the wake of the heavy rainfall, that left parts of the city submerged, the Chennai airport has been shut till 11 pm today. As many as 32 flights scheduled to land in Chennai have been diverted to Bengaluru and flights to Vijayawada, Rajahmundry were cancelled. As per the officials, the airfield has been closed for arrival operations till 11:30 pm.
The Tamil Nadu government has declared a public holiday in four districts including Chennai, Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur, and Kancheepuram for December 4 and December 5.
“All government offices including the offices of public undertakings/corporation boards, banks of financial institutions, etc, in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu districts will be closed on Monday,” the official order read.
Greater Chennai Corporation in a post on X said, "GCC requests you all to stay indoors. There was extreme rainfall, a total of 340mm till today early morning. "
