Previously on Monday, authorities said at least four people had been killed in Tamil Nadu state in weather-related incidents while thousands of people evacuated from coastal communities as the region braced for impact.
Chennai airport, one of India's busiest travel hubs, had to suspend operations as the runway flooded, while schools and other centers of learning, along with banks and offices, have closed their doors in four districts of the city.
Cyclones – the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the Northwest Pacific – are a regular and deadly menace on coasts in the northern Indian Ocean, where tens of millions of people live.
Cyclone Michuang is expected to reduce in power late in the evening on Tuesday.
Scientists have warned that such storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer due to climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
