The North-East Monsoon continued its havoc in Tamil Nadu battering most of the northern districts with incessant rain and heavy winds. Death toll in the rain mounted to 71 as reports of 12 more deaths from the districts reached the capital by Monday afternoon.
Chennai city and suburbs which were pounded by incessant rains for the last three days had a surprise in store for Monday. Even as the water-clogged roads in the capital city brought normal life to a grinding halt, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa toured the rain ravaged RK Nagar constituency and other areas in the city despite heavy rains. She pacified the people who bore the brunt of the nature’s fury. “I know many of you have suffered losses in the heavy downpour which pounded the State for the last four days. The government has taken measures to extend all possible help to those who lost their houses and dear ones. We have pressed into service 48 high power motors in the constituency to pump out the flood waters,” Jayalalithaa told people in R K Nagar..
Jayalalithaa preferred to travel by a tempo traveller, her favourite campaign vehicle instead of the routine Toyota Prado SUV. She addressed vast crowds which had gathered at all vantage points in the constituency. “The government has opened seven medical camps in this constituency where you will get all medicines and treatment free of cost. Officials of the government are monitoring the situation on a round-the-clock basis. You need not get upset over any of the issues,” said Jaylalithaa.
This is the first time Tamil Nadu is seeing a chief minister leading from the front to restore normalcy. She also said that what Chennai received during the last three days were rainfalls which occur in three months in normal times.
Though unconfirmed reports stated that 105 persons have lost their lives, the official figure given out by the State government pegged it to 71. Some ministers had accompanied the chief minister while she undertook the tour of RK Nagar.
The Centre on Monday rushed 11 teams comprising over 400 personnel of NDRF responders to conduct relief and rescue operations in rain-hit Tamil Nadu. These teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will also be carrying 38 inflatable rubber boats along with other necessary equipments to undertake quick operations in the state. NDRF Director General O P Singh said that the teams are being sent in from the Arakkonam (Tamil Nadu) and Guntur (Andhra Pradesh) bases of the force.
Schools, colleges and Government offices remained closed on Monday. Some of the suburban trains were diverted due to floods in tracks. But long distance trains remained unaffected thpugh some of them were delayed due to flood related issues.
SR Ramanan, director, Indian Meteorological Department’s Chennai office said the capital city received 25 cm rainfall in the 24 hours which ended at 0830 hrs on Monday. “The well defined low pressure area developed in the Bay of Bengal is moving towards northern Tamil Nadu and South Andhra which may bring more rainfall in northern Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra Pradesh. We expect a gradual reduction in rainfall over the next few days,” said Ramanan.
Adding to Monday’s woes were rumours spread by a section of the people about impending tsunami and cyclones which were found to be fake news. Most of the people continued to remain indoors for the third successive day.
The combined water storage in the main reservoirs feeding Chennai--Poondi, Cholavaram, Redhills and Porur, was at 7,023 mcft, as against the total capacity of 11,057 mc ft.