The heavy rains lashing Chennai since December 30 (Thursday) morning have led to waterlogging across the city including Chepauk, Triplicane, T Nagar, Velachery, Madipakkam, Adyar. By 6 pm, several areas in the city reported flooding. Subsequently, subways have been closed in many parts of the city to prevent people and vehicles getting stuck.
According to the regional meteorological department from 8.30 am till 6.30 pm, MRC Nagar in Chennai received 18 cm of rainfall, followed by Nungambakkam and YMCA Nandanam, which received 12 cm of rainfall each. Meenambakkam and ACS College in the city received 10 cm rainfall and Anna University received 8 cm rainfall. Among other areas in Chennai on Thursday, Pallikaranai and Madhavaram received 1 cm of rainfall each. Meanwhile Sathyabhama University and Hindustan University received 4 cm rainfall, as per MeT data.
Due to incessant rainfall for the past six hours and several officer goers returning to their homes, traffic congestion is reported in major parts of the city from Porur, Mount road, T Nagar, Guindy, Anna Nagar, Anna University, Vadapalani and Koyambedu. Vehicular traffic flow in the city has also been updated. Traffic is reported to be slow moving in Rajamannar Road (KK Nagar), Dr Sivasamy Road (Mylapore), Gandhi Irwin junction road till Dr Nair Bridge on EVR Road, Jawahar Nagar 20 feet road in Sembium, Kolathur Vinayagapuram to Red Hills road, Lake View Road (Nungambakkam) and parts of 100 feet road.
The following subways in the city are also closed due to heavy rains and water logging: Gangureddy subway in Egmore, Madley and Aranganathan subways in T Nagar, RBI subway connecting Rajaji salai and Kamaraj salai in Royapuram. According to reports, water also entered the Secretariat building on Rajaji salai with the rains.
Pradeep John also known as Tamil Nadu Weatherman on Twitter noted that Mylapore received 207 mm rainfall and described the event as the ‘craziest spell’. Pradeep John also pointed out that Nugambakkam received heavy rainfall thus surpassing the 2015 annual rainfall report. Following this, the weather blogger also mentioned that 2015 annual rainfall is overtaken by 2021 and is the third wettest year after 2005 and 1996.
Pradeep John among other city-based weather bloggers also pointed out that none of the weather trackers predicted the rainfall. However, MeT is yet to comment on this.