Cold, wet and miserable day for Chennaiites

The city woke up to leaden skies and lashing rain on Monday, the unrelenting downpour paralyzing life, inundating many areas, throwing traffic out of whack and forcing people to stay indoors. On Monday, the observatories in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam recorded a rainfall of 5 cm and 3.5 cm respectively during the 12-hour period ending 8.30 pm. During the 24-hour period till 8.30 am on Monday, Nungambakkam received 9.9 cm and Meenambakkam 10 cm of rain.

According to Meteorological Department officials, a well-marked low pressure area lay over Southwest Bay of Bengal off Tamil Nadu coast. Chennai will experience intermittent showers, heavy in some areas and gusty surface winds on Tuesday.

The situation was worse in many areas, including Vadapalani, Adyar, Vyasarpadi, Tondiarpet, Perambur, Broadway, Velachery, T Nagar and Koyambedu, which were already under sheets of water since Sunday. Motorists had a difficult time navigating through the flooded stretch of Jawaharlal Nehru Salai at Koyambedu and Arumbakkam and Arcot Road. Even newly laid roads in Majestic Nagar at Valasaravakkam were damaged.

V Mohana, a resident of Purasawalkam complained that the storm water drain network in Kilpauk and Purasawalkam had not helped much. Many roads such as Ormes Road and Flowers Road were water-logged.

Motorists had to wait for long hours in inching traffic on Poonamallee High Road and near the Kathipara junction. R Bhuvana, a resident of Ekkaduthangal, said it took nearly two hours to reach Adyar. Many of the buses that operate in shuttles did not make it to the bus stops early in the morning.

The situation in West Velachery localities was no different from that witnessed during the past few years. This year, Chennai Corporation had initiated work on the storm water drains in many areas, but it did not help in draining rainwater.

Many areas such as AGS Staff Colony and nearby localities remained cut off due to inundation. The residents woke up to see the roads under sheets of water and it did not take long for the water to enter apartment complexes. Elsewhere in Velachery, residents of Tansi Nagar, Bharathi Nagar and Baby Nagar were also affected as a culvert was damaged.

Though Corporation officials spoke about the efforts to bale out water, this was not reflected in the situation on the ground.

Unlike in the previous years, when the Corporation deployed boats to help the residents get out of their houses there were no sign of them till Monday afternoon. Compounding the problem was the dug up roads in AGS Staff Colony for SWD and power disruption owing to water-logging. In Jayendra Colony, Perungudi, water entered many houses.

Traffic was severely hit on Ponneri High Road, Manali and Ennore Expressway as the roads were in shambles. The drainage system faced a severe hit in several stretches in T Nagar and Nungambakkam. The choked drainage worsened rainwater stagnation on Nungambakkam High Road and Dr Nair Road.

Mayor M Subramanian inspected work to drain rainwater in north Chennai. Two rubber boats were used to transport residents of Ganesapuram at Vyasarpadi from inundated streets. Seventeen uprooted trees were removed from areas such as Kilpauk, Sastri Nagar and Triplicane. About 70,000 food packets and 12,000 bread packets were distributed to residents of marooned areas such as Pulianthope, Taramani, Velachery and Nochikuppam.

Commuters were stranded as the auto-rickshaws and call taxis refused to operate to water-logged areas and passengers at Chennai central railway station were caught off guard.

The Hindu