This raw footage of Chennai floods washing off a family will give

Forecasts of incessant rainfall meant the army had to work on a war footing to rescue people trapped in inundated parts of Chennai, India’s fourth most populous city.

“We are all pained by the devastation in Tamil Nadu”.

“People of India stay with people of Tamil Nadu in this hour of need”, he said after the survey in which he was accompanied by Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, who hails from Tamil Nadu.

There was sporadic rainfall yesterday, after a 24-hour cloudburst dumped as much as 345mm of rain on the city earlier this week.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has blamed climate change for the deluge, traveled to Chennai to get a first-hand view of a rescue effort that has so far been halting.

The Prime Minister undertook the aerial survey of the flood affected areas of Chennai, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts in Tamil Nadu.

People and vehicles wade through floodwaters. More than 5,000 houses remained under water.

The head of Indian Meteorological Department, Laxman Singh Rathore, said Wednesday that the flooding occurs because there is not enough space for the water to drain out, catchnews.com reported.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said in Paris that Chennai could have fared better if it had protected and preserved its natural water bodies and drainage channels.

National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) teams have now doubled the number of rescuers in rain and flood-battered Chennai and adjoining areas to 1,200, as the force made a decision to penetrate deep into affected areas to aid the marooned.

Chennai’s flooded airport was forced to close for a second day Thursday.

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The teams are having trained deep divers, swimmers and are equipped with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) netra, Satellite phones, State-of-the-art satellite antenna, deep diving sets, cutters, life jackets, lifebuoys, rope, medicines, food packets, drinking water etc to deal with the disaster. “We have sent more than 75 people to assist during Chennai Floods and have set up a local control room also”, he said in a series of tweets. “We don’t have any milk”, she said, adding that she had stepped out to see if she could find a shop selling some food. Most areas were without power. Southern Railway officials said they were yet to take a call on restoration of its services. The mushroom-like growth of real estate alongwith politically-backed, unplanned development that most often ignores rules and regulations are factors that have also contributed to Chennai’s woes. “We only see land for buildings, not for water”, Narain said.