Though it did not rain on Wednesday night and most of the time on Thursday, Chennai and its suburbs wore the look of a ghost city. The main roads and the suburban roads continued to be flooded throwing vehicular traffic out of gear. Army, Navy, Air Force and National Disaster Response Force are leading and coordinating the rescue and relief operations in all the flood-affected areas. The death toll in the floods mounted to 270 by Thursday evening.
Chennai airport remained closed on Thursday while Southern Railway cancelled all express and mail trains to southern destinations following the flooding of tracks. later in the day, Air India operated a special flight from Indian Navy’s Arakkonam airbase to evacuate 150 passengers who were stranded in Chennai for the last three days. The Indian Air Force (IAF) pressed special aircraft from Tambaram airbase to New Delhi to evacuate nearly 200 students from Delhi studying in various professional colleges in Chennai.
All low-lying areas in the metropolis have been submerged in water. Along with people in slum areas, residents in high-end gated communities too were displaced by floods as water level rose to the first and even second floors of many multi-storey buildings. Since most of the shops and business establishments remained closed, residents who had not stocked essential commodities faced hardship. The popular eateries in the city too downed shutters for the second day.
Power supply to all residential and commercial complexes remained suspended in the backdrop of the unprecedented increase in the number of electrocutions reported from Chennai and remaining parts of the State. Chennai accounted for 17 out of the 43 deaths due to electrocution in the recent floods.
Telecommunication services in Chennai and suburbs remained crippled for the fourth day in succession. All IT companies in Chennai and suburbs have been shut down following the disruption in power and communication services. Nearly 80 per cent of the landlines have stopped functioning since Sunday. Sources in BSNl said it would take at least 10 days for restoring the telecommunication network in Chennai and suburbs.
Jayalalithaa took an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in a special helicopter provided by the IAF. She said that 474 water pumps and 82 JCBs have been pressed into service to drain out the floodwaters.
All educational institutions remained closed on Thursday and will remain so till Monday. Employees working in IT companies in the city and suburbs are making a beeline to the bus and railway stations to catch the first available bus or train to their hometowns.
The IAF team air dropped food packets and drinking water over the Thambaram, Velacherry and Adyar regions of the city.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the rainfall is the biggest ever downpour in 114 years. The city of Chennai received 27 cm rainfall in the 24 hours till Thursday night.
While 44,000 people have been shifted to safer regions in Chennai alone, more than 17,500 people were re-located in neighbouring Thiruvallur. Chennai will get more rain in the next 24 hours due to the low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal, according to SR Ramanan, director, RMC, Chennai. “Cuddalore and surrounding areas would get heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours,” said Ramanan.
Experts like Dr S Kalyanaraman of Saraswathi Research Centre and Prof S Vincent of loyola College attribute the unprecedented catastrophe in Chennai to the damaged storm water drains in the metropolis. “The city of Chennai could not withstand the surplus water released from the overflowing water reservoirs in the city. The carrying capacity of Adyar and Cooum Rivers and the Buckingham Canal were no match for the surplus waters,” said Kalyanaraman. According to Prof Vincent, had the authorities maintained the storm water drains in proper conditions, this situation would not have arisen. “We had alerted the Government in 2009 itself about the alarming situation of the storm water drainages,” said Vincent, who once headed the Tamil Nadu science and Technology Centre.
Kalyanaraman, who had done more than two decades long research on the rivers in the country, pointed out that the only solution to save Tamil Nadu and other south Indian States from floods and drought is by inter linking the peninsular Indian rivers as well as the water reservoirs in the State.