As the Cyclone Nivar, the fifth strongest cyclone to hit the country began its landfall around 10:30 pm on Wednesday night. The cyclone brought with it, heavy rainfall and strong winds, thereby making the Tamil Nadu government declare public holiday till Saturday. Chennai airport too has suspended flight operations for the next 12 hours.

According to The Hindu, at least 26 flights have been cancelled due to the poor weather condition in the city. Flights to cities like Kozhikode, Vijayawada, Bengaluru etc were also affected.

Metro services too have been stalled.

Cyclone Nivar wreaking havoc in Tamil Nadu PTI

According to an NDTV report, coastal areas would be receiving heavy rain till Thursday. The cyclone is likely to cause severe damage to houses, trees and crops. Power lines too are expected to be uprooted by the strong winds.

According to India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) weather bulletin issued around 10:30 pm on Wednesday night, severe cyclonic storm lay 50 km east-northeast of Cuddalore, 40 km east-southeast of Puducherry and 120 km south of Chennai.

According to NDTV, around 1.45 lakh people have been evacuated from low lying areas, while 4000 locations have been spotted vulnerable by the local official of Tamil Nadu.

At around 11:30 pm, IMD tweeted, “Very severe cyclonic storm Nivar now lies about 50 km east-southeast of Cuddalore, about 40 km east southeast of Puducherry. LANDFALL PROCESS CONTINUES.CENTRE OF CYCLONE TO CROSS COAST NEAR PUDUCHERRY WITHIN NEXT 3 HOURS WITH WIND SPEED OF 120-130 KMPH GUSTING TO 145 KMPH.”

The heavy rain fall has brought life to a standstill in Chennai. The city dwellers are having to face water logging, disruption of electricity and more due to the cyclone, which has been declared as a “red” category cyclone.