By Siddhartha Kumar –
NEW DELHI — The death toll from a cyclone that hit southern India rose to 20 on Friday as people started to return to their homes after the storm died down.
Cyclone Nilam, packing winds with speeds of up to 65 mph, made landfall Wednesday at Mahabalipuram in the Tamil Nadu state. About 13,000 people from low-lying areas in Tamil Nadu and the neighboring Andhra Pradesh state were evacuated.
Tamil Nadu disaster management chief Jatindra Nath Swain said five more deaths had been reported in rain-related incidents in the state since Thursday.
Separately, bodies of three of the five missing sailors of an oil tanker that ran aground off Chennai, were found washed ashore, the broadcaster NDTV reported.
On Thursday, the death-toll had stood at 12.
Swain said the impact of the storm had not been as serious as expected. He rejected reports that 150,000 people were displaced, saying the number would at most be a few hundreds.
“The cyclone toppled 5,000 electric poles and damaged 250 transformers causing blackouts in some areas. We are also assessing agricultural losses, as large areas of paddy crop was destroyed,” he said.
“The situation is normal now with most people from coastal areas returning to their homes and schools and colleges opening today,” he said.
The Indian Metereological Department in its final bulletin on the cyclone, said the storm had weakened into a “low pressure area” that would bring rains in Andhra Pradesh and neighboring states.
