Chennai: Many of parts of Chennai remained under a thick sheet of water on Monday when the sky remained overcast and the downpour subdued even as a threat of another deluge loomed over the northern Tamil Nadu with the meteorological department forecasting heavy rains from Tuesday to Friday due to a depression in the Bay of Bengal.
The continuous overnight rains, brought by the North East monsoon, flooded low-lying areas and many key roads connecting north Chennai region to the city’s central parts, throwing normal life out of gear and forcing people to leave homes, looking for temporary shelter elsewhere as houses were flooded and buying of essential items became an ordeal.
A government press release said that 1,52,451 food packets were distributed in Chennai to people in distress and that 166 streets were cleared of water using giant pumps. Of the 13 subways that were flooded 10 have been cleared for traffic and work was going on expeditiously in the other 3.
Heavy inflow into the lakes and reservoirs around Chennai led to the release of water in the major waterways that crisscross the city. While the new reservoir at Thervoy Kandigai brimmed to the top, 90 cubic feet was let out of it, while the release from other reservoirs continued.
From the Poondi reservoir 4848 cubic feet of water was being released as it was fast filling up, said an official press release adding that 1200 cubic feet from Sholavaram, 2148 cubic feet from Puzhal in Red Hills, 2104 cubic feet from Chembarambakkam and 434 cubic feet from Veeranam were gushing out into the canals and rivers.
In other parts of the State, too, most rivers were on spate. Warning has been issued in many places to motorists passing through bridges over such rivers and people living in the banks have been evacuated.
Since more rains are forecast by the meteorological department from Tuesday when the low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal was expected to turn into a storm and move in the northwestern direction, bringing copious rains to Chennai and the northern districts till Friday, the government machinery has been cranked to action.
To prepare for any eventuality, two teams of the National Disaster Response Force personnel have been despatched to Madurai and Chengapattu and two teams from the State Disaster Response Force to Thanjavur and Cuddalore, besides keeping ready a wide range of paraphernalia for search and rescue operations.
The Fire and Rescue Services, too, are in a state of preparedness with equipment for search and rescue operations, including 90 boats. Besides 121 multi-purpose centres and 5106 relief camps that had been set up, 3915 tree cutters, 2889 JCB machines, 2115 generators and 483 giant pumps were kept ready all over the State.
Fishermen, who have been warned not to venture into the Bay of Bengal, have been equipped with a wide range of communication equipment – 2100 High VHF instruments, 800 satellite phones, 291 NAVTEX and NAVIC devices.
The Government has also instructed the district collectors to take precautionary measures in preventing the outbreak of water borne diseases, particularly Dengue, as the water situation might turn worse.
As of now, 37 districts in the State have received an average of 15.62 mm of rains in the last one day with Chennai getting a maximum of 79.3 mm rainfall. Between October 1 and November 8, the North East monsoon had brought 347.62 mm of rains to the State, which is 44 per cent higher than the normal rainfall.
Displaced families have been accommodated in the relief camps and food and medicines were made available to the people taking refuge there. In Chennai alone 889 persons have been accommodated in 48 of the total 169 camps set up.
