CHENNAI: Chennai on Wednesday turned a virtual island and several coastal areas of Tamil Nadu were marooned by flood waters after unprecedented rains in 100 years pounded the city, its suburbs and neighbouring districts destroying crucial road and rail links, shutting the airport and rendering thousands homeless.
Chennai, which received 49 cm of rain and Chembarambakkam, where the reservoir surplussed about 25,000 cusecs of water into Adyar river, received 47 cm of rains in the last 24 hours that flooded the city and the suburbs, uprooting people from their homes.
Flood waters reached upto even the second floor of the Housing Board colonies on the banks of Adyar river as people reached roof tops looking for rescue and relief in several parts of the city and suburbs.
The death toll in the rains that have lashed the city and other parts of state has gone up to 197, officials said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who spoke to chief minister J Jayalalithaa last night and promised all assistance, held discussions with his cabinet colleagues Rajnath Singh (Home), Arun Jaitley (Finance) and M Venkaiah Naidu (parliamentary affairs) in the morning to take stock of the situation.
The National Crisis Management Committee headed by cabinet secretary P K Sinha reviewed the situation and assured the state of all support from the centre.
All modes of transport–air, road and rail services– remained suspended due to the unprecedented deluge, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at the airport and various rail terminals. Suburban rail services also remained suspended.
Adding to the worry of the citizens and administration, the weatherman has forecast rainfall over the next three days with the next 48 being very critical under the influence of a trough of low pressure and upper air circulation over the southwest Bay of Bengal and Sri Lankan coast.
Thereafter, the state will see an anti-cyclone activity which will be associated with “heavy rains” at some places.
“The phenomenon will continue for the next seven days, but the next 48 hours are very crucial. Neighbouring states will also see rainfall activity,” L S Rathore, Director General of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) told reporters in Delhi.
A steady drizzle, which was occasionally heavy, brought some respite from yesterday’s torrential downpour, but vast swathes in the city and the suburbs and neighbouring districts of Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur, Cuddalore and Villupuram reeled under the impact of the surplus waters from reservoirs that left Adyar and Cooum rivers in spate and Buckingham Canal breached.
Massive rescue and rehabilitation efforts have been undertaken by army, navy and air force along with personnel of the National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF), police and fire service in the worst-affected areas of Tambaram, Mudichur, Velachery and Madipakkam in the suburbs that come under Kanchipuram distict and in Kotturpuram, Jaffarkhanpet, Saidapet, Guindy and Mambalam and other western parts of the city.
Normal life in the city and suburbs were completely disrupted by lack of public transport, power and essential supplies as movement of vehicles were largely curtailed because flood waters even in hitherto-safe areas of the city.
Mobile telephony largely remained crippled because of failure of telephone towers and the landline phones in several areas went still because of the flood in the of the areas.
The southern suburbs of Chennai including Velachery, Madipakkam and neighbouring areas which had suffered heavily in the earlier spells of rain in November were again hit badly by the downpour that has again flooded homes.
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