Chennai Rains: Boats on Roads, Buses Under Water, It’s That Bad

As Tamil Nadu is expected to receive further rainfall for the next two days, relief seems to be a far cry for Chennai

An aerial view of flood affected areas of Kanchipuram District on the outskirts of Chennai on Monday. (Photo: PTI)

Schools and colleges are closed for more than a week now. Boats are becoming a common place in the streets of Chennai, rescuing stranded citizens.

This video from Velachery shows an old woman being taken to a hospital in a boat. The Chennai Corporation and private groups have started providing boat services in many low lying areas of the city.

Most subways are submerged and trains have been cancelled or rescheduled across the state. This video from the Aranganathan subway in Chennai’s T-Nagar area shows an MTC bus that has been submerged in water.

The Hindu reported that around 1200 people attended medical camps in the city.

(Photo: The News Minute)

The city has been hit by continuous torrential downpours which have paralysed the city and leading CM J Jayalalithaa to assign senior district officials to supervise relief efforts.

(Photo: The News Minute)

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has also been put into action in some part of the state to counter this unprecedented downpour which has so far claimed 59 lives.

#ChennaiRains has been trending on Twitter from Saturday.

The rains are a result of a well-marked low pressure area over Bay of Bengal. Chennai received 27 cm of rainfall on Sunday alone. Heavy rains are expected for the next three days and fishermen have been warned to venture out in the sea.

Eleven teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have also been deployed. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa also visited six constituencies and assured people that the government was doing everything it could.

A report in The Hindu adds:

Chennai may get a respite from the downpour as there is only a slim chance for the weather system to intensify into depression, according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). There will be a decrease in rainfall as the well-marked low pressure area has moved off the north Tamil Nadu coast.