Floods that have killed 210 people in southern India began to recede on Thursday, giving rescue teams a chance to evacuate thousands of residents stranded by the heaviest cloudburst in the city of Chennai in over a century. Intermittent rains in the city in areas like Kodambakkam, T. Nagar, Adyar and Kotturpuram and suburban Tambaram today threatened to revive the ghost of flooding again but the weatherman has forecast only light rains for Chennai in the next 24 hours. In 2005, India’s commercial capital Mumbai came to a standstill after several days of monsoon rains. This is the second major devastation that the city has faced since the last major flood in 2010.
Advertisement
Train services from Chennai Beach station to Arakkonam will be at intervals of 45 minutes.
Indian authorities have attempted to blame climate change for the flooding but according to weather experts, the seasonal north-east monsoon, worsened by the El Nino effect in the eastern Pacific Ocean, was mainly responsible for the unprecedented rainfall.
Prices of increasingly scarce foods like milk and vegetables have skyrocketed, NDTV news channel reported.
The government has set up 97 relief camps, which are now providing food and shelter to an estimated 62,000 people.
Much of Chennai and its suburbs remain submerged for the fourth consecutive day under up to two-and-half metres of water.
Radhakrishnan, the health secretary, said Saturday that while the immediate rescue operations were tapering off, the main focus of the administration in the coming days will be to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.
Many parts of the city and its neighbourhood were still reeling from power suspension even as false rumours of breach in Chembarapakkam lake in the night kept people living on its bank on tenterhooks.
Cultural activist V.R. Devika, 61, said many people were offering free accommodation and home cooking via social media.
Summary: While heavy rain may spare Chennai and its neighbouring districts, places like Villupuram, Karaikal, Puducherry and delta districts are likely to get heavy to very heavy rain on Saturday.
Rainfall has been relentless across southern India since early November, resulting in multiple floods from Chennai to Kochi. The deluge destroyed crucial road and rail links, shutdown the airport, snapped power and telecom lines and left lakhs of people stranded.
As the government struggled to reach all those impacted by the floods, residents teamed up on their own to distribute aid – packets of food, bottled water and bed sheets – in worst-hit neighborhoods.
Advertisement
Late in the evening, there was panic as people went running for cover in rain following reports that Chembarakkam reservoir has breached. The government should not have approved those projects.
