Cyclone kills 19 in Pu'chery, TN
Source: The Sangai Express / (Agencies)

Chennai/ P'ry, December 30 2011: Cyclone Thane hit the coast of Tamil Nadu on Friday, making landfall between Puducherry and Cuddalore that has resulted in the death of 19 people so far.

So far 12 people have been reported dead in Cuddalore and seven dead in Puducherry.

The cyclonic storm is weakening over land but rains continue in the coastal districts of the state and southern Andhra Pradesh till Saturday evening.

The system is likely to move westwards and cross north Tamil Nadu coast, close to south of Puducherry, within a few hours and weaken gradually.

As a result very heavy rainfall will continue over Northern Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Rayalseema.

The landfall happened very close to Cuddalore, southeast of Puducherry.

Puduchery District Collector S B Deepak Kumar said that rescue operations were in full swing in the union territory.

Uprooted trees were being removed from the roads.

Train services from southern Tamil Nadu were hit as many of them ran late or were stopped in the nearby station while flights to international destinations by private carriers including to Kuwait and Malaysia from Chennai were cancelled.

Cuddalore was the most affected, with damaged roads rendering it difficult for rescue teams including those from National Disaster Response Force and fire and rescue services to reach the cyclone hit fishing hamlets.

District Collector Amuthavalli said even as communication lines remained affected, over 5000 houses of fishermen had been damaged.

"We don't know what is happening in the outside world.

All that we have been hearing since last night is the howling of the wind.

Several trees have fallen down.

Even mobile phone signals are not proper," S Ravikumar, a Puducherry resident said.

Some 250 coastal villages inhabited by fishermen had been put on high alert and there was fear all night long.

Several hundreds were evacuated and taken to the 49 relief shelters.

Others have had to fend for themselves.

Jaya, a fisherman from Puducherry said to NDTV, "I have not seen a cyclonic storm like this ever.

At least the tsunami, we ran away and saved our life.

This time we have not earned even 10 rupees in the last one week.

No one has come to our help'' .

Most fishermen have suffered financial losses due to the cyclone.

"Catamaran, boat, nets, engine, all have been either damaged or washed away.

What are we going to do? They have not even offered us shelter in a school or some other building,'' said Shankar, another fisherman in Puducherry.

A comprehensive assessment of the damage done by Cyclone Thane will take some more time.

The immediate danger of loss to life has passed.

But a question mark hangs over the future for thousands of fishermen along the coast who have lost or had their catamarans and boats damaged.

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