India: Over 10 flights cancelled at Chennai airport amid adverse weather conditions

A total of 13 flights arriving from and departing to various locations were cancelled at the Chennai airport due to adverse weather conditions brought about by cyclone Mandous, informed officials on Friday.

The officials also advised the general masses to check with the concerned airlines, in view of the flights affected due to the extreme weather conditions.

"Kindly take note of the flight cancellations at the Chennai Intl Airport on 09.12.2022 due to adverse weather conditions forecasted. Passengers are requested to check with concerned airline(s) for further updates." tweeted the Chennai (MAA) Airport.

"Severe cyclonic storm 'Mandous' over Southwest Bay of Bengal moved nearly west-northwestwards withspeed of 12 km/h in past 06 hours & is over Southwest Bay of Bengal on 9th December. It lies 320 km south-southeast of Chennai: Andhra Pradesh Meteorological Centre."

In view of cyclone Mandous maintaining its intensity of 'severe cyclonic storm' for many hours today, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team were kept on standby in Chennai, informed officials on Friday.

The officials added that the teams were ready with equipment so as to take note of any untoward incident.

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"NDRF is ready to face the Mandous Cyclone situation in Chennai. The NDRF team in Chennai Adayar Indra Nagar has been placed ready where they have packed rescue materials to move when a tough situation arises. Once the alert from state officials is communicated, NDRF team will move immediately to the needed spot," said the NDRF Sub-Inspector Sandeep Kumar.

Earlier, red alerts were issued in three districts of Tamil Nadu, informed officials. The districts that are on alert are Chengalpattu, Villupuram and Kancheepuram.

"Cyclone will continue to move west-northwestwards & cross north Tamilnadu, Puducherry & adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts b/w Puducherry & Sriharikota around Mahabalipuram as a cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 65-75 km/h gusting to 85 km/h during midnight," as per an ANI tweet sourced from IMD forecasts.

The IMD later added that Mandous was "very likely" to maintain its severity for about 6 hours, after which it would weaken (slowly) into a cyclonic storm — losing its "severe" classification.

"It is likely to reduce to light to moderate rainfall at most places, with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places likely over north Tamil Nadu on 10th December 2022," added the statement.

Earlier, the Greater Chennai Corporation issued precautionary measures and ordered the closure of all parks and playgrounds till further notice.

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