Preceded by heavy rains and strong winds that uprooted trees and damaged houses in coastal Tamil Nadu, Cyclone Gaja hit the state’s Nagapattinam district early Friday morning.
As the cyclone made landfall at around 1.40 am, with its eye reaching the coastal belt between Nagapattinam and Vedaranyam, the intensity of the winds decreased for a brief period before rising again. According to the Chennai met department, the eye would fully cross from sea to land in around an hour.
Ahead of the storm, tens of thousands of rescue personnel were on standby and over 26,000 people were evacuated from coastal areas of south Tamil Nadu coast even as the India Meteorological Department warned the storm’s intensity was greater than forecast earlier.
Live updates: Cyclone Gaja makes landfall; heavy rains pound TN coast, trees and houses uprooted
As the outer band of the pressure system approached land, heavy rains had lashed several parts of Nagapattinam district and surrounding areas, including Karaikal, since Thursday evening while power supply was disconnected as a precautionary measure in the region, officials said.
Along with wind speeds of 100 to 110 kms, gusting to 120 kms, the IMD forecast also showed a storm surge or rising of the sea as a result of wind and atmospheric pressure changes of about 1 metre above astronomical tide. This is likely to inundate low-lying areas in Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai and Ramanathapuram districts of Tamil Nadu and Karaikal district of Puducherry at the time of landfall.
After landfall, cyclone Gaja is likely to retain its intensity for about six hours, hence, gale winds of 60 to 70 km/hr are likely over interior districts of Tamil Nadu.
Cyclone ‘Gaja’ landfalls at Vedaranyam of Nagapattinam in TN. @htTweets pic.twitter.com/ldqyJ6jKeU
— M Manikandan (@mani_nov21)November 15, 2018
First Published: Nov 16, 2018 02:07 IST
Source: HindustanTimes