Mass evacuations hailed for casualty-free India cyclone
Mass evacuations hailed for casualty-free India cyclone
Residents walk along a road as Cyclone Nivar approached the southeastern Indian coast in Puducherry on November 25, 2020
Accurate forecasting and the evacuation of several hundred thousand people helped avert any loss of life after a cyclone clobbered southeast India, authorities said Thursday, as rescuers worked to restore power and clear fallen trees.
Nivar made landfall at 3:05 am (2135 GMT) near Puducherry, packing gusts of up to 130 kilometres (80 miles) per hour, uprooting trees and bringing torrential rain of up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) in a few hours in some parts.
Thousands of emergency personnel were deployed in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry as authorities began restoring power that had been suspended to prevent damage to the electricity grid.
One woman in Tamil Nadu died after a boundary wall collapsed following heavy rains late Wednesday, local media reported, but this was not confirmed by local authorities who said there was no loss of life.
„People have given us full cooperation,” said O Panneerselvam, deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu state.
„It’s a solace that nothing untoward happened and the weakening of the cyclone is good news,” he said, adding that 250,000 people were housed in shelters in the southern state as a precaution.
Rescue workers were using heavy machinery to remove hundreds of trees uprooted in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the Press Trust of India reported.
Electricity pylons were also toppled in some areas, and several flash floods were reported.
Initially classified as a „very severe cyclonic storm” as it swirled in the Bay of Bengal, Nivar weakened after landfall into a „severe cyclonic storm”, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
It was forecast to move north and further weaken over the next few hours.
„No major damage has been reported in Tamil Nadu. We are assessing the situation but things are returning to normalcy,” an official at the State Disaster Response Force told AFP.
– Deadly occurrence –
Ahead of the arrival of the storm — a regular and often deadly occurrence in the Bay of Bengal — local authorities declared a public holiday Wednesday and Thursday, shutting everything except emergency services.
Flights at Chennai airport were suspended until Thursday morning and metro train services halted.
In Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai, authorities said they were also closely observing the level of reservoirs and lakes to avoid a repeat of 2015 flooding which killed several hundred people.
No evacuation orders were issued in Sri Lanka, but heavy rains were forecast — particularly in the north of the island nation, and fishermen were advised to stay on land.
More than 110 people died after „super cyclone” Amphan ravaged eastern India and Bangladesh in May, flattening villages, destroying farms and leaving millions without electricity.
But as with other recent cyclones, the death toll was far lower than the many thousands killed in previous cyclones of that size, a result of improved weather forecasting and better response plans.
burs-ja/stu/jfx/fox
Nivar slams southern India as very severe cyclonic storm
Nivar slams southern India as very severe cyclonic storm
Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Nivar has slammed into southern India, bringing high winds, heavy rainfall and significant disruptions to travel.
A well-marked low pressure system that formed in the southern Bay of Bengal over the weekend quickly organized into Cyclonic Storm Nivar on Tuesday morning, local time. Nivar strengthened into a very severe cyclonic storm before making landfall Wednesday night along the Tamil Nadu coast near Puducherry.
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| Severe Cyclonic Storm Nivar nearing landfall in southern India on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 25. RAMMB/CIRA |
Maximum sustained winds were 120-130 km/h (75-80 mph) at the time of landfall. This is equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale in the Atlantic hurricane basin.
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Although Nivar is inland and losing wind intensity, continued heavy rain is expected to bring the most significant impacts through the end of the week.
„Nivar is expected to produce widespread rainfall of 100-200 mm (4-8 inches) with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 450 mm (18 inches) from northern Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls said.
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As of Thursday afternoon, Chennai has received 332 mm (13 inches) of rain since beginning late on Monday. Flooding was seen in parts of the city on Wednesday as Nivar roared onshore.
This rain can lead to widespread flooding across southeast India and has the potential to close roads and inundate low-lying areas. Mudslides may occur across areas with rugged terrain.
The threat from damaging winds will continue to wane as Nivar loses wind intensity, though wind gusts of 60-100 km/h (40-60 mph) can still produce isolated power outages and tree damage through Friday.
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Due to the impacts from wind and rain across southeastern India, Nivar is a 2 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Tropical Cyclones.
In comparison to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which has been used by meteorologists for decades and classifies storms by wind speed only, the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale is based on a broad range of important factors. The scale covers not only wind speed, but also flooding rain, storm surge and economic damage and loss. This communicates a more comprehensive representation of the potential impact of a storm to lives and livelihoods.
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Nivar turned deadly as it came onshore near Puducherry Wednesday night. Asian News International reports three deaths and additional injuries.
Bus and train services were suspended across portions of Tamil Nadu from Wednesday into Thursday.
At Chennai’s international airport, operations were also suspended on Wednesday, but they have since resumed Thursday morning as conditions improved across the city.
In coastal portions of Chennai, a storm surge led to flooding in low-lying areas. A storm surge is caused by winds from the cyclone pushing water into coastal areas.
Nivar’s strike on southern India is the second landfalling cyclone in the Indian Ocean in less than a week.
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Late Sunday, Cyclone Gati made landfall on the Somalia coast near Cape Hafun, the easternmost point of Africa, with the equivalent strength of a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale in the Atlantic or East Pacific basins. Gati became the first storm in the satellite era to hit the region with hurricane strength, according to NPR.
AccuWeather’s forecasting experts, who regularly monitor the Indian Ocean, say yet another tropical threat could emerge in the basin prior to the end of the month.
„Conditions look favorable for another low over the southern Bay of Bengal toward the end of November. There is a chance this low can become a cyclonic storm before striking southern India and Sri Lanka in early December,” Nicholls said.In fact, this feature could impact some of the same areas impacted by Nivar.Tropical activity usually picks up this time of year in the northern Indian Ocean once the Southwest monsoon weather pattern recedes. The Southwest monsoon typically occurs from June to October and is responsible for bringing wet weather to India throughout the summer.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Surging freight rates propel Thai rice prices to 2-month peak
By Anjishnu Mondal
(Reuters) – Rice export prices in Thailand jumped to their highest in over two months this week on soaring container freight rates, while an appreciation in the rupee and improving demand buoyed prices for the staple in India.Top exporter India’s 5% broken parboiled variety was quoted at $372-$378 per tonne, up from the last week’s $366-$370.”Demand is good for Indian rice since it is cheaper than other exporting countries,” B.V. Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association (REA), said.The rupee’s appreciation has been forcing exporters to raise prices, said an exporter based at Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.In Thailand, benchmark 5% broken rice prices rose to $480-$490 per tonne from $475-$485 a week earlier, on higher freight rates in a shipping boom.”The market is quiet but the freight rates are higher, making rice prices higher as well,” a Bangkok-based trader said.Vietnam’s 5% broken rice prices were unchanged from a week earlier at $495-$500 per tonne.”Shipments to China and the Philippines are picking up, but demand from other markets such as Malaysia and Africa remained weak,” a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City said.Traders said farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s largest rice growing area, had started sowing for the winter-spring crop, the largest of the year, a bit earlier to avoid a possible drought.Bangladesh’s rice output could fall 1% to 35.3 million tonnes in the current marketing year from a year earlier, mainly because of inclement weather, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said earlier this month.”Severe weather in Bangladesh, which started in May and ended in August, has impacted Bangladesh’s rice production and moderately impacted Bangladesh’s corn production,” the report noted.Bangladesh has started importing rice after a three year gap, by issuing two tenders to import a total of 100,000 tonnes.(Reporting by Khanh Vu in Hanoi, Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Ruma Paul in Dhaka, Patpicha Tanakasempipat in Bangkok and Swati Verma in Bangalore; Editing by Mark Potter)
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