Floods, nine killed as southern India braces for Cyclone Michaung

By Jatindra

BHUBANESHWAR, India (Reuters) – Heavy rains submerged roads in southern India on Tuesday, where at least nine people, including a child, were killed in the flooding and the havoc hours before a severe cyclone was due to make landfall.

Cyclone Michaung is expected to hit the coast of Andhra Pradesh state around 11 a.m. local time (0530 GMT), the weather office said, gusting in with winds of up to 110 kph (70 mph).

Parts of the state are expected to be pelted with more than 200 mm (8 inches) of rain over the next 24 hours, the weather office said, and at least 8,000 people have been evacuated.

A 4-year-old boy died in Tirupati district after a wall fell, C. Nagaraju, executive director of the state’s disaster management authority said, while eight people were killed in neighbouring Tamil Nadu state, officials said.

In Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai, a major electronics and manufacturing hub, floodwaters swept away cars and submerged a runway, triggering the shutdown of one of India’s busiest airports until Tuesday morning.

The rains have stopped and water has receded at Chennai airport, and the airfield was operational from 9 a.m. local time, a spokesperson for the federal civil aviation ministry said.

The rains and winds also snapped power lines and uprooted trees, officials said, and more than 140 trains and 40 flights were cancelled in Andhra Pradesh.

Taiwan’s Foxconn and Pegatron halted Apple (NASDAQ:) iPhone production at their facilities near Chennai due to heavy rains, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.

In December 2015, floods in Tamil Nadu killed at least 290 people and caused widespread damage.

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