Cyclone Vardah creates Havoc in TN and AP

CHENNAI: Officers in National Disaster Response force said that the death toll rose to 10 in Tamil Nadu.
Vardha, the most severe storm to have hit the TN in two decades, pounded the Chennai Coast with devastating wind force touching 150 kmph and left its stamp of devastation as it made landfall near Chennai Harbour on Monday evening.

A distinct shift in the Tamil Nadu government’s style of functioning became apparent as ministers got ample play in projecting rescue and relief operations while coping with the effects of Cyclone Vardah, a sharp departure from J Jayalalithaa’s regime when legislators and key party officials were rarely seen on the ground.
While the Cyclone Vardah left a huge trail of destruction in neighbouring Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts too on Monday.
Vardah’s trail of destruction and devastation was visible all over from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh to Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu, a distance of 174 km, with several thousand trees uprooted in the area.
One died in Kancheepuram and another in Nagapattinam, officials said fearing that the death toll could increase even as more than 10,000 people living in low-lying areas were moved to safety by authorities.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Pannerselvam said late on Monday night that restoration of electricity would begin midnight and complete restoration of power supply to all three districts would take one to two days. He also announced ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of those who died due to the cyclone.
National Highways connecting Chennai with Kolkata,Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi suffered severe damage as powerful winds uprooted trees and signboards affecting traffic on these major highways.
NDRF and SDRF were involved in rescue operations along with the Army and police personnel. Community workers used hand-held battery-operated woodcutters to remove hundreds of uprooted trees lying on the roads.