Chennai and surrounding three districts remained paralysed for the third day in succession as basic facilities like power, telecommunications and movement of vehicular traffic remained disrupted following Monday’s devastating cyclone Vardah.
While the State administration struggled to clear the uprooted trees from main thoroughfares and arterial roads, residential areas remained without power and communication services. What added to the woes of Chennaites was the depleting level of drinking water stored in each house. Due to disruption in power services, water distribution companies have suspended operations since Tuesday.
Many dwellers in the city have started leaving to their native towns as authorities have made it known that it would take days for the complete restoration of power and telecommunication supplies. Though the State administration has deployed hundreds of labours from other districts to remove the thousands of fallen trees, it is taking more time than what was expected to finish the job.
“The authorities in Chennai have not learnt anything from last year’s flood which swept the basic facilities in the metropolis for weeks. Though the warming about cyclone Vardah was issued at least four days in advance, the administration was caught napping when it struck on Monday,” said Sam Rajappa, veteran scribe who had to put in lot of hardship since Monday.
He said the situation in ATM services, which have been facing shortage of currency notes, were further aggravated by the power cuts. “All fuel dispensation centres have been closed because of power suppky failure. This has led to all gated communities going without power as they could not buy diesel to run standby generators,” he said.
More than the woes of the people living in residential apartments and gated communities, it is the poor who are facing the worst fury of the nature. “Our thatched roofs and corrugated sheets were blew away by the winds. For last two days we slept under the canopy provided by the blue skies,” said Arun, a casual daily employee engaged by one of the residential societies at Kattupakkam.
“We are working 24X7 to restore power supply. To a certain extent we have restored power supply in Chennai. Monday’s high speed winds uprooted 40 tower lines, destroyed 400 transformers and more than 10,000 electric posts have been destroyed or damaged. It will take time to replace them,” said SP Velumani, Tamil Nadu Minister for power.
The biggest causality is the mobile phone services as the uprooted towers and damaged dish antennas completely silenced the sector. Though BSNl officials claimed that their services remained unaffected, private operators in the metropolis were silent like the services provided by them.
Ram Narayan, who flew down to Chennai to participate in the annual Margazhi Music and Dance Festival which started on Wednesday, is apprehensive about its smooth conduct . “last year I had to cancel my journey following the floods. This year, it seems the music festival would be there and I do pray that no more natural calamilties happen here,” said Ram Narayan. Hundreds of music aficionados like Ram Narayan have landed in Chennai from USA, Europe and Australia for the month long music and dance festival, rated as world’s biggest musical and dance event.