For five continuous days, the streets, subways and roads of Chennai have been inundated with water.
The city saw heavy rainfall on Thursday night, and fresh rain on Friday morning. It seems there is no immediate relief in sight for Chennaites. The US Climate Prediction Centre said that Chennai along with coastal Tamil Nadu and the entire country of Sri Lanka, may receive excess rainfall continuously till November 18, which is next Wednesday.
The Met department has said that there will be heavy rains for the next 24 hours in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu. However, it added that the rain might slow down tomorrow.
Schools and colleges still remain closed as roads are flooded. Reports add that heavy rain even submerged rail tracks, resulting in only five out of the nine trains that were scheduled to leave the station actually departing, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.
According to a report in The Indian Express, the city received 14.9 cm of rainfall on Thursday night and arterial roads including Anna Salai, Poonamallee High Road and GST Road along with downtown areas around Fort St George, Chennai Central Railway Station, Office of the Commissioner of Police and Kilpauk were heavily flooded at night.
Media reports put the estimated deaths in the state between 40 and 45 out of which at least 32 people have lost their lives in Cuddalore district alone.
A meeting was held at the district collectorate with six other ministers on Thursday, where O Panneerselvam, Minister for Finance and Public Works said, “Among the 13 panchayat unions in the district, six were most affected. The six ministers would travel to all parts of the district and speed up the relief work.”
