NEW DELHI: Even as the Cyclone ‘Nivar’ weakened into a depression after making landfall near Puducherry on early Thursday morning, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the system was under continuous surveillance and the concerned state governments were being informed regularly in view of forecast of rainfall at many places in coastal Andhra Pradesh, north Tamil Nadu, south interior Karnataka, Rayalaseema and Telangana in next 24 hours.
Since many coastal districts in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry received very high rainfall on Wednesday and Thursday due to Cyclone, the Central Water Commission (CWC) too kept a close watch on water bodies, including reservoirs, to put neighbourhoods on alert, if required.
“We are closely monitoring the situation in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the wake of Cyclone Nivar… The NDRF teams are already on ground to help people in need,” tweeted Union home minister Amit Shah after speaking to chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. He assured them all possible help from the Centre.
A central team will visit the affected areas to assess the damage. Both Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will get financial assistance on the basis of an assessment. “The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will continue its relief and rehabilitation measures in coordination with state authorities and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA),” said an official.
The ministry of earth sciences (MoES) on Thursday praised the IMD for its “perfect forecast” of the Cyclone ‘Nivar’ three days in advance which could result in massive evacuation exercises in both Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
“This was possible due to improved observations, state of art weather prediction models and experienced field forecasters,” said Madhavan Rajeevan, secretary, MoES, which is the nodal ministry of the IMD.
The Cyclone was being monitored constantly by doppler weather radar at Chennai, Karaikal and Sriharikota. “We could operate all three radars which helped us track better,” said Rajeevan while appreciating IMD’s close interaction with the NDMA, NDRF and state authorities.
In the context of dissemination of Cyclone alerts through social media, he, however, tweeted that “it could have been more appropriate if IMD tweeted in Tamil instead of Hindi”.