{"id":426535,"date":"2024-12-03T01:00:37","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T01:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=426535"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Cyclone-Fengal-toll-rises-to-20-in-South-Asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Cyclone-Fengal-toll-rises-to-20-in-South-Asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclone Fengal toll rises to 20 in South Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The death toll from Cyclone Fengal’s fierce push through Sri Lanka and southern India reached 20 on Monday as downpours and flooding followed the storm’s wake after its winds calmed.<\/p>\n

Fengal made landfall in India’s Tamil Nadu state on Saturday, bringing the highest 24-hour rainfall seen in 30 years to nearby Puducherry, before weakening to a normal low pressure weather system by Monday morning.<\/p>\n

More deaths were reported on Sri Lanka after Fengal skirted the island nation on Friday bringing intense rains that triggered landslides.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka’s disaster management agency said a total of 17 people had been killed in the country while nearly 470,000 others were taking shelter in temporary relief camps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

India recorded three deaths from electrocution as a result of the storm, Tamil Nadu disaster management minister KKSSR Ramachandran told reporters late Saturday.<\/p>\n

He did not give further details on what caused the deaths, adding that damage from the cyclone was otherwise “minimal”.<\/p>\n

India’s disaster agency were also attempting to rescue a family of seven in the state feared trapped by a landslide, local media reports said Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roads were flooded and schools were shut in parts of southern India with weather officials on Monday warning that there remained a risk of flash flooding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Puducherry, a former French colony on India’s southern coast, received its highest 24-hour rainfall in 30 years after Fengal made landfall nearby, India’s weather department said.<\/p>\n

Cyclones — the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the northwestern Pacific — are a regular and deadly menace in the northern Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

But scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the world heats up due to climate change driven by burning fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapour, which provides additional energy for storms, strengthening winds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A warming atmosphere also allows them to hold more water, boosting rainfall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But better forecasting and more effective evacuation planning have dramatically reduced death tolls.<\/p>\n

aj-ash\/gle\/pdw<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Puducherry had its highest one-day dump of rain in 30 years<\/p>\n

—
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The death toll from Cyclone Fengal’s fierce push through Sri Lanka and southern India reached…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}