Cyclone Fangal made landfall in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Saturday, lashing nearby Puducherry, with the heaviest 24-hour rainfall in 30 years before it became a normal low-pressure system by Monday morning. Weakness in the weather system.
More deaths were reported in Sri Lanka on Friday after the island nation of Fengal was hit by heavy rains that triggered landslides.
Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Agency said a total of 17 people had died in the country, while around 470,000 others were sheltering in makeshift relief camps.
Tamil Nadu Disaster Management Minister KKSSR Ramachandran told reporters late on Saturday that three electrocution deaths were recorded in India as a result of the storm.
He did not give further details on what caused the deaths, adding that damage from the storm was otherwise “minimal”.
India’s disaster agency is trying to rescue a family of seven in the state who are feared trapped by landslides, local media reports said on Monday.
Roads flooded and schools were closed in parts of southern India, and weather officials warned on Monday that the risk of flooding remained.
Puducherry, a former French colony on India’s southern coast, received its heaviest 24-hour rainfall in 30 years after landfall near Fengal, India’s meteorological department said.
Cyclones—the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the northwest Pacific—are a regular and deadly threat in the northern Indian Ocean.
But scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the world warms due to climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels.
Warmer sea surfaces release more water vapor, which provides additional energy for storms, strengthening winds.
A warmer climate allows them to hold more water, increasing rainfall.
But better forecasting and more effective evacuation planning have dramatically reduced the death toll.