Cyclone Nivar made a late-night landfall near Puducherry. The tropical storm has weakened from a "very severe cyclonic storm" to a "severe cyclonic storm" with a wind speed of 100-110 km per hour, gusting up to 120 km per hour. Nivar would move northwestwards and weaken further into a cyclonic storm during the next 3 hours.
The Chennai airport has suspended operations in view of the Cyclone Nivar. The airport authority announced on Wednesday evening that aircraft operations at the Chennai airport would remain suspended from today evening (7 pm) to tomorrow morning (7 am).
Authorities in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have taken a slew of measures to handle the situation arising out of the cyclonic storm, which has led to heavy rainfall in several regions.
Heavy to very heavy rains with extremely heavy spells are likely to occur over Ranipet, Tiruvannamalai, Tirupattur, Vellore districts of Tamil Nadu and Chittoor, Kurnool, Prakasam, Cuddappa districts of Andhra Pradesh and adjoining southeast Telangana.
The Railways has cancelled over a dozen special trains on November 25 and 26 scheduled to either originate from and terminate in the southern states of the country in view of the impending cyclone Nivar and offered a full refund.
