Cyclone Michaung: At least 13 killed as storm makes landfall in India's Andra Pradesh

At least 13 people have been killed after Cyclone Michaung made landfall in India on Tuesday.

A four-year-old boy was killed after the wall of his house in Tiruptai district collapsed in India’s Andhra Pradesh coast with high winds and heavy rainfall across the region.

Coastal areas of Tamil Nadu were affected by heavy rain. State capital Chennai was one of the worst hit areas, with at least 12 people killed in rain-related incidents.

Two people were electrocuted and another was killed by a falling tree, police said.

Residents were seen wading through waist-deep murky floodwaters, which swept away cars and submerged a runway. City police used rafts to distribute food packets in low-lying areas.

The storm affected transport across the country with 50 flights and 100 train services cancelled.

The storm, named by Myanmar, formed over the Bay of Bengal and made landfall at Bapatla with a wind speed of about 100kmph, India's Meteorological Department said.

“It lay over south coastal Andhra Pradesh about 15km south-west of Bapatla and 40km north-east. It is likely to move nearly northwards and weaken into a Cyclonic Storm during the next 2 hours,” the India Meteorological Department said.

Heavy rains pounded coastal areas, with more than 200mm of rain forecast over the next 24 hours.

About 9,500 people were evacuated from the seven districts of Konaseema, Kakinada, Krishna, Bapatla and Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh to safety in 211 relief camps, according to the state disaster management authority

Emergency workers, including volunteers from the state and national disaster forces, have been sent to help people in vulnerable coastal communities. Authorities have set up more than 300 relief camps.

The state has a 974km-long coastline and more than 3.3 million people live within 5km of the sea.

The storm triggered heavy rainfall in the states on Monday, with roads, airports and train stations flooded and vehicles swept away. Strong winds uprooted trees and electric poles.

People use a boat to cross a flooded road following heavy downpour during Cyclone Michaung in Chennai, India. EPA

Taiwan's Foxconn and Pegatron halted Apple iPhone production at their complexes near Chennai due to heavy rains, local media reported.

The state government shut down schools and education institutions, government offices, banks and financial institutions and issued an advisory asking people to work from home and to stock up on critical items such as water, food and medicines.

Specs

Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric

Range: Up to 610km

Power: 905hp

Torque: 985Nm

Price: From Dh439,000

Available: Now

1888

While you're here

Kareem Shaheen: Even a pandemic could not unite today's America

Michele Wucker: The difference between a black swan and a grey rhino

Robert Matthews: Has flawed science and rushed research failed us?

Zayed Sustainability Prize

Clean water and solar homes: Zayed prize finalists present sustainability solutions

Youth take centre stage for this year's Zayed Sustainability Prize

The view from The National

The fate of Libya should be in Libyan hands

Libyan migrants must not be left to die at sea

ISIS cannot be allowed to regroup in Libya

Whiile you're here

Damien McElroy: Anti-science attitudes in America are proving lethal

Editorial: What makes the UAE such a good place to test vaccines?

Editorial: The fight against Covid-19 should be guided by science

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Ni Jian: Why China and the UAE are brothers

Lin Yaduo: This is the time for facts, not fear

Bill Gates: How the world can end the pandemic