After experiencing incessant rains for the last six days, residents of Chennai were able to breathe a sigh of relief on Thursday, November 11, as the rainfall began to slow down. However, while the rains are likely to decrease from November 12, residents must now deal with inundation, submerged vehicles, lack of power and food supply, and other issues caused by the rains.
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has released data on the works carried out in the city in this regard. The civic body cleared water stagnation from 26 places on Thursday and 240 places on Wednesday, it said. The data also indicates that water is yet to be pumped from roads in 476 places. According to the GCC, from 7 am on Wednesday to 2 pm on Thursday, the city received an average rainfall of 628.50 mm.
The data further showed that 7,180 cusecs of water was released from the Poondi reservoir, while 2,151 cusecs water was released from Chembarambakkam. About 2,015 cusecs of water was released from Cholavaram and 3,218 cusecs of water was released from the Red hills reservoirs.
Additionally, 54 trees fell down as a result of the rains in Chennai, and the GCC said that it has cleared all of them. Twenty-two subways were also inundated, of which 12 were cleared using pumps, the data showed. Currently, 10 subways are still inundated and closed for vehicular traffic, including the Rangarajapuram Two-Wheeler subway, Madley subway, Ganeshapuram Subway, Vyasarpadi Subway, Duraiswamy Subway, Aranganathan Subway, Villivakkam Subway, Gengu Reddy Subway, Manickam Nagar Subway and Pazhavanthangal Subway.
Apart from these, the GCC control room received about 12,937 complaints on various rain-related issues from across Chennai, as of 2 pm on Thursday. The civic body said that it has cleared 5,447 of these. A total of 68 relief camps have been set up across the city, out of which 44 are occupied by over 2,200 people. Over 6.64 lakh food packets were distributed to those in need on Thursday alone, the GCC said.
Apart from this, 48 boats were deployed across the city to rescue people, the GCC data noted.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that the rains in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh will decrease by November 12, as the depression formed over southwest Bay of Bengal crossed the Tamil Nadu and adjoining Andhra Pradesh coast near Chennai on Wednesday evening. The IMD has removed the red warning that was issued for Chennai city.
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