Cyclone Mandous impact intensifies in Tirupati

Tirupati: The impact of cyclone Mandous has been intensifying gradually since Thursday night in Tirupati district. As the storm is expected to cross the coast between north Tamil Nadu and South Coastal AP in the early hours of Saturday, district official machinery fully geared up to check human or livestock loss.

The coastal areas of Tirupati district have been experiencing light to moderate rains since Thursday night. The pilgrim city was also getting a good spell of showers and was reeling under cold. Amid warnings of heavy rains accompanied by winds up to 80-100 km speed, the officials have been focussing on the vulnerable tanks, roads which need continuous monitoring. There are warnings of crop loss by weather experts due to the impact of Mandous cyclone.

District Collector K Venkataramana Reddy asked the people not to come out unless it is an emergency and the people living in coastal areas should exercise even more caution. He made it clear that the officials were ready to face any situation arising out of the cyclone effect. As the heavy rains are expected to continue till December 11, the entire official machinery should be on high alert to face any eventuality. For the convenience of people and to coordinate with the officials concerned, 24x7 control rooms were set up at the Collectorate and at every mandal office in the district.

The Collector said the five coastal mandals Chillakuru, Kota, Vakadu, Sullurpet and Tada need more caution. KVB Puram witnessed heavy rainfall on Friday morning. In view of the prevailing situation, fishermen should not venture into the sea for fishing. About 126 rehabilitation centres were set up in the district especially where there are possibilities of getting inundated. Food and drinking water were provided at these centres. Aged people, pregnant women, children, dialysis patients and differently abled persons will be shifted to safer places on priority basis. All secretariat staff should be available locally.

As part of relief measures, 23 NDRF rescue teams were made available at Gudur and 26 teams at Naidupet and these teams will plunge into action in any unwanted situations. The Collector made it clear that the officials concerned should prepare loss estimates immediately after the rains start receding. Meanwhile, with the cyclone effect, normal life has been partially paralysed in Tirupati as people could not attend their daily works with the on and off rains.

In particular, the daily construction labourers and others have remained workless and they were saying that the same situation may have to be faced for the next two days as well. With the scanty rains in Tirumala, pilgrims have faced some difficulties. As the pilgrim turnout has been increasing ahead of the weekend, the severe cold on the hills has been causing trouble for them especially for old people and children.

During the day, Gudur division experienced an average of 51.8 mm rainfall with Kota mandal recording the highest 87.2 mm rainfall followed by Vakadu with 80.8 mm. Tirupati urban recorded 33.8 mm rainfall while Tirupati rural recorded another 32.6 mm. In total, the district recorded 1,222.6 mm rainfall from 8.30 am to 3 pm on Friday.

In Chittoor, Collector M Hari Narayanan said the administration and police department have been geared up to face the cyclonic storm. Moderate rainfall has been registered throughout the district, he added.

Inclement weather hits flight services

Tirupati: Due to the unfavourable weather conditions in Tirupati, a few flight services were disrupted on Friday. It was learnt that, Pune to Tirupati and Tirupati to Pune SpiceJet has been cancelled. Visakhapatnam to Tirupati IndiGo flight reached Tirupati but went back to Visakhapatnam without landing due to inclement weather.

Similarly, Hyderabad–Tirupati SpiceJet and IndiGo flights scheduled to reach on Friday morning returned to Hyderabad without landing. The passengers scheduled to depart by these flights were sent by alternate flights.