Unprecedented rain and deluge brought life to a halt in Chennai and scripted heart-wrenching tales of tragedy and moving stories of survival on Wednesday.
Tamil Nadu’s capital took a major beating as fresh downpours worsened an already disastrous flood situation, posing danger to thousands of people in low-lying areas. The financial loss may exceed Rs15,000 crore, an industry body said.
The city remained cut off from the rest of the country even as a massive relief and rescue operation was underway. Chennai airport has been shut till December 6 and more than 50 trains cancelled. The nearby naval air station at Arakonnam is likely to be turned into a makeshift airport for commercial flights from Thursday.
With all the main arterial roads and most of the roads connecting the suburbs to the city getting submerged following heavy rain which lashed the city on Monday night and throughout Tuesday, Chennai wore a devastated look.
To make things harder, power supply has been disconnected in all the suburbs following 15 deaths due to electrocution in the city during the last ten days. The deaths took place after people came in contact with live wires hidden from view by the muddy flood water. Milk, food and medicines have become impossible to procure with most shops submerged and this has added to woes of the populace.
So bad is the situation that automobile majors Hyundai, Ford and Renault have temporarily suspended operations at their plants in Chennai. "We have suspended three shifts, one on Tuesday night and two shifts for today, at our plant due to the rain,” a Hyundai Motor India ltd official said. The company will take a call on resuming operations depending on situation in the coming days.
Most of the offices in the city, including that of IT companies, remained closed due to heavy rain with leading firm Infosys deciding to remain closed on Thursday as well due to flooding at its premise.
However, IT companies said they have invoked alternative measures to ensure there is no impact on critical services.
The financial loss may exceed Rs15,000 crore, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India said, while the State Government put the total loss at Rs8,481 crore.
The Government said 72,119 people were housed in 432 relief camps, but thousands of passengers were still stranded at the Chennai airport and railway stations.
Hundreds of cars and buses were submerged across the city by the rising water and people clambered to safety by climbing on boundary walls and rooftops.
Hundreds of people were injured while trying to escape the rising water and by tripping on the roads and falling into gutters. There were several cases of snake bites as well.
Given the alarming situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday morning took stock of the problems being faced by Tamil Nadu and discussed it with his Cabinet colleagues, including the Home and Finance Minister.
Meanwhile, in the evening Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman convened a meeting of the top brass of the security forces engaged in rescue and relief operations.
The National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha reviewed the situation in a series of meetings to chalk out strategies to deliver all sort of assistance to the Tamil Nadu Government.
The Army has deployed nearly 500 soldiers for rescue and relief efforts in Chennai while the Navy has dispatched one of its amphibious carriers INS Airavat from Visakhapatnam to Chennai. Expected to reach there on Thursday morning, the ship is carrying 20 divers and swimmers, 15 boats, doctors and medicines.
The Navy has also deployed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for real time monitoring of the situation while the IAF has pressed two C-17 big transport aircraft and three medium lift C-130Js to carry the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) besides relief material to the flood-ravaged city from all over the country.
In the first two days of the rescue operations, the Army has saved more than 2,400 people including some patients from a flooded hospital in Chennai and ferried them to safety. Moreover, more than 20 Army trucks are ferrying relief material to affected areas and Army engineers are working overtime to restore mobile phone connectivity by repairing towers, officials said here on Wednesday.
Telephone and mobile services had gone bust since Tuesday evening and Chennai airport has been closed since Tuesday morning.
Helicopters belonging to the Indian Air Force dropped food packets and water sachets to people stranded in Tambaram and Velachery for the last three days. Since social networking sites had given advance warning of the impending downpour most households had stocked essential items for three to four days.
With many railway tracks getting flooded, Southern Railway has cancelled 12 South-bound trains leaving Chennai Central. The Railway headquarters has opened special lifeline services for the benefit of the passengers.
Nungambakkam, a city suburb recorded 29 cm rainfall till Wednesday 8 am. But Meenambakkam which houses the Chennai International Airport received 35 cm rainfall till 8 am on Wednesday. Since the storm water drainages in the city were chocked with mud and other waste articles, the rainwater ended up flooding the suburbs.
With the Public Works Department and Metro water deciding to open shutters of the Chembarambakkam and Poondi reservoirs which started overflowing, the Adyar and Cooum rivers got flooded. The Mount-Poonamallee Road which links Chennai to Sriperumbudur, Kanchipuram, Vellore and Bengaluru got submerged in water following the overflowing of the Porur lake.
Schools, colleges and almost all business establishments remained closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nilgiris supermarket wore a deserted look on Wednesday morning. "Hardly ten people came for shopping on Tuesday. Sales are yet to begin today," said Ganapathy, manager, of the supermarket.
Mushtaq, a supermarket owner had to carry his entire stock for a gated community at Poonamalli on his scooter. "The Poonamalli High Road is flooded and I had to procure the materials at 4 am," said Mushtaq. It took him five hours to negotiate the six-km-long highway on his scooter.