Continuous rains in less than a week left South Indian crown, Chennai City drowned completely leaving many people in dire straits. Never before Chennai witnessed such rain fall and it is coming out that it is the highest in 100 years.
In 1918 Chennai witnessed 108.8 centimetres rain while till Monday 118 centimeters rain fall was recorded. In Nov,1985 Chennai witnessed 97 centimeters rainfall and after that this is the first time Chennai witnessed such heavy rainfall.
Entire Tamil Nadu, union territory of Pondicherry is reeling under incessant rains. For more than a month Tamil Nadu has been witnessing rainfall due to low pressure in Bay of Bengal.
Almost all areas in Chennai was cut off and rail and road links were damaged. Schools,colleges and offices are shutdown for more than 20 days and many IT companies shifted their operations to Hyderabad or Bengaluru.
Today Chennai airport was shutdown and for the first time in 137 years leading dialy The Hindu didnot comeout with its edition. Teams of army, navy, coast guard and NDRF have been deployed in the worst-affected areas of Tambaram, the southern gateway to the city, Mudichur and Oorapakkam. But even they couldn't continue their operations as rains are lashing the city.
DG MeT Department Laxman Singh Rathore said, "Extremely heavy rainfall has been occurring for sometime and today Tamil Nadu has witnessed 35 cm of rainfall that has created havoc". Other worst affected areas include Jafarkhanpet,Saidapet,Kotturpuram, Adayar, Vadapalani,Valsarvakkam.
Poondi, Cholavaram, Puzhal and Chembarambakkam reservoirs that feed Chennai have touched 83.8 per cent of its capacity and out of the 14,098 lakes under PWD in Tamil Nadau 6,791 lakes are full.Many trains were cancelled due to overflowing rain water on tracks.
