Seema Agarwal, from the central district of Alwarpet, said she had seen many angry people queuing at bus stops to leave town. Then suddenly he disappeared, leaving his coat on his chair. Terming the situation as very alarming, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, “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”.
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“I have had no drinking water and milk since yesterday (Wednesday)”, Harish Rao told IANS from his house in south Chennai.
Amrit Sangma, Caritas India communication officer, told Matters India on December 2 that they will provide food, wash kits and clothes to affected people with the support of its four local partners.
But the task of resurrecting an entire city could prove to be hard as the Chennai airport remained completely submerged.
“Urbanisation and unplanned growth are the main contributing factors for floods in Chennai, which is also a lesson for both upcoming and existing metros like Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and others as any negligence or ill-preparedness might invite trouble in a similar manner or may be even worse than this”, says Rawat.
Thirty-seven scheduled trains have been cancelled at Chennai railway station due to the flooding, the minister added.
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.
VR Devika, 61, a cultural activist, said many people were offering free accommodation and home cooking via social media.
People in Chennai are feeling some respite as there has been no rain this morning while levels of Adyar and Kumbh rivers have fallen considerably following reduced discharge from reservoirs like Chembarampakkam, Madurantakam and Puzhal lakes.
At least 269 people have been killed in the state since heavy rains began in early November, according to Singh.
While intermittent rains have been forecast for Chennai, coastal and interior Tamil Nadu will receive more rains in the next 24 hours.
Since, the Met department issued a warning of more rains for the next one week, various agencies including Army, Navy and NDRF intensified their rescue and relief operations across the city.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grand designs to build 100 futuristic “smart” cities in India, but as this week’s devastating flooding in Chennai shows, fixing today’s accident-prone metropolises appears to be the more pressing task.
Arun Ebenezer was visiting a friend on Tuesday when the downpour started. From his friend’s apartment he could see that a bridge on the Adyar river had broken. Power continued to be shut off in many parts of Chennai and adjoining districts of Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Puducherry.
He had blamed climate change for the heavy rains that hit the southern state last month tweeting before attending the United Nations climate summit in Paris this week: “We are feeling the impact of fast-paced climate change”.
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Jatin Singh founder of private weather forecaster Skymet said that the northeast monsoon is typically more intense in years like this when El Nino – or a warming of the waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean – prevails.
