Lalitha Simon is really worried. She lives on the 18th avenue of Ashok Nagar in south Chennai. There has been no power since the previous night. The water is steadily entering the compound of her home and her toilet is starting to overflow. She says, “It has been five days. The water has been there since November 7. Why is the corporation not draining it out? Everytime a vehicle passes by in the street, a lot of garbage flows into my house. How will we live like this if the rains continue.”
Even as weather bloggers are predicting that the worst is over for Chennai, steady rains continue in most parts of the city on Thursday, November 11. In several localities, flooding in the basement and ground floor of houses continue even as cars are being submerged. Residents are still stranded in their houses, waiting for the water to either abate or for the corporation to remove the water through pumping.
Bhaskaran, a vegetable seller, who also lives in the Ashok Nagar area, tells TNM, “A lot of people living on the ground floors in different avenues of Ashok Nagar have already shifted out. The water has been there for three to four days and has been increasing.” As he lives on the first floor, he says he has not shifted yet. On the road where Bhaskaran lives, several cars parked on the road are seen slowly getting submerged as the water level rises.
The situation is similar in many parts of the city. While in north Chennai, most residents living in low-lying areas had been evacuated and shifted to rehabilitation camps, in localities like Pattalam and Perambur, water mixed with sewage continues to flood houses.
According to data, as of 10 am on Thursday, 1,961 people have been moved to relief shelters, and while there are no official numbers of houses that have been damaged, officials say a lot of trees have fallen, which are slowly being cleared. On Wednesday, Tamil Nadu Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management KKSSR Ramachandran said that 12 people had died in rain-related incidents so far, and on Thursday one more death was reported from Walltax Road.
After a slight dip for two days, Chennai witnessed heavy rains on Wednesday evening, as a well-marked low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal concentrated into a depression. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the depression is likely to cross north Tamil Nadu and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts between Karaikal and Sriharikota, close to the north of Puducherry by Thursday evening.
As of 10 am on Thursday, several subways and roads remained closed due to inundation. The Greater Chennai Traffic Police in a release said that the KK Nagar to Raja Mannar Salai, Mylapore to Sivaswamy Salai, EVR Salai to Gandhi Irwin to Nair Point and Sembium to Jawahar Nagar were among the roads that were closed. The subways at Vyasarpadi, Ganeshapuram and Tambaram among others, also remained closed.