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.
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Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was leaving for Chennai on Thursday to take stock of the flood situation as rains subdued to a light drizzle on Thursday morning.
“It would not be an exaggeration to say that Chennai has become an island as it has been cut off from all national and state highways”, he said, according to PTI. “We are working very hard to restore normality”.
He said in the 24 hours ending 8.30 AM of December 2, Chennai received 330 mm of rain when the fact is that in the whole of December it generally gets 250 mm.
The helicopter operations are on full swing wherein four Medium Lift Helicopter, one Advance Light Helicopter (ALH) and five Chetak/Cheetah are involved actively in rescue and relief operations. The Indian army has so far evacuated 18,000 people from rooftops but many others remained trapped. A senior federal official said that more than 1,000 people had been critically injured in the floods and were being taken care of at government hospitals.
Migrant workers told of sleeping on railway station floors for days, surviving on biscuits and unable to return home elsewhere in the country after passenger train services were suspended because of the floods. 5 million in immediate relief and is surveying losses to life and property.
Environmentalists said haphazard construction by a corrupt administration, faulty drainage and a rubbish pileup exacerbated the flooding.
“Chennai is stinking and it is shocking to see how it has collapsed in the last 48 hours”, said Anant Raghav, 56, a professor at the University of Madras.
“I can’t even believe that this much water is possible in Chennai”, another woman said as she stood in waist-deep water searching for a shop selling food. Teams of NDRF and army personnel and police and fire service men swung into action to rescue people from their flood homes in Kotturpuram, Nandanam, Jafferkhanpet, Saidapet and the suburbans areas of Velacheri, Madipakkam, Tambaram and Mudichur localities where waters had reached upto first floor. Chennai which is the capital of Tamil Nadu is also the fourth largest metropolitan city in India.
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Bhartruhari Mahtab of Biju Janata Dal said the minister had not given a concrete reply over the state’s demands in the wake of cyclone Phalin during which almost 10 lakh people were evacuated to safer places.
