Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram – one of India’s most powerful politicians, who is also a former movie star – was heckled and abused for going missing in action after floods swept Chennai.
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GOA EXTENDS HELP TO CHENNAI Relief efforts in flood-hit Chennai got a small helping hand from Goa, with the state’s only major port MPT and the state unit of the Indian Coast Guard sending packaged water, ready to eat meals, blankets and medicines for the stranded denizens.
UAE Exchange has always been the first to stand up for helping the victims of natural disasters.
“Millions of people affected by the floods have had to leave their homes and are cut off from even basic necessities”, said Mr Benjamin William, the SRC’s Secretary General/CEO.
Photographs of Chennai’s airport showed planes grounded by floodwater, and as of Thursday morning, some 250 passengers were stranded.
Chennai’s arterial Mount Road and several other important roads were opened for traffic on Friday after three days of disruption, bringing a slight sense of normalcy as water levels in Adyar and Cooum rivers and other channels dropped following reduced discharge of water from Chembarambakkam, Puzhal and Poondi reservoirs on the city’s outskirts. The airport is expected to remain closed until noon Sunday (December 6), and flights have been canceled and diverted. But another cloud burst was forecast within hours and officials said brimming waterways were the main concern in the low-lying coastal capital of Tamil Nadu state.
Sanitation workers have begun spraying insecticide in many places to prevent the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue due to the stagnant water collected in large parts of the city.
Chennai has boomed as a centre for vehicle factories and IT outsourcing, but trash-filled drains and building on lake beds in the rush to industrialisation and prosperity has made it more prone to flooding.
Around 324 trains have been cancelled as railway tracks still remain submerged underwater.
Waters receded in some areas thanks to a lull in the heaviest rains in a century that have killed at least 280 people.
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Eighteen hospital patients died after heavy rain caused floods which knocked out generators in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, officials said. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the city this week he announced 10 million Indian rupees ($150,000) of extra assistance for relief operations. The Tamil Nadu public works department claimed that it had issued warnings but there had been a breakdown in media and phone communications.
