Fresh rains in Chennai lead to serious flooding, suspension of trains and flights, besides leaving hundreds of people without power. Following the two days of heavy rains, authorities deployed army and the National Disaster Response Force for the rescue of stranded people, who are thousands in number. Since last month, a minimum of 188 people have reportedly died due to floods in Tamil Nadu.
Rains in coastal areas were triggered due to depression in the Bay of Bengal. The State capital was brought to a standstill last month, due to non-stop rain for almost a week. Now, massive rains these two days landed in massive flooding, that led to the suspension of flights from the Chennai airport, as flood waters entered the tarmac areas and the runway.
As per the reports, nearly 400 passengers at the airport are stranded, while all flights were cancelled. As flood waters inundated the tracks, over a dozen trains were cancelled. Power supply to nearly 60% of the city's neighbourhoods was suspended. Main streets of Chennai are waterlogged. Schools were shut down for 17th day since November. Water floods entering the building of government hospital in the Tambaram area made to evacuate patients.
Social media was taken by the residents to offer food, accommodation, as well as mobile phone recharges to citizens who have no option but to evacuate their properties.
A resident of Sowcarpet area Ashok Modi, told BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi, that, "We only saw rains like this some 25-30 years ago when there was no electricity for almost a week. It has been raining since Monday night and there has been no respite. Everywhere you look, there is two to three feet of water.”
According to Muralitharan of BBC Tamil, “All the reservoirs around Chennai are full and the rivers are flooded with the excess waters released from the reservoirs.” People residing in the river banks were move to temporary shelters.
As per the meteorological office, "scattered to heavy" rains are expected to continue in coming three days.
-Sumana
