Tamil Nadu: Heavy rain lashes Chennai; several areas waterlogged, schools and colleges closed

Chennai and its adjoining district received heaviest spells of rainfall on Thursday, since December 2015 deluge, leaving several areas and arterial roads under sheets of water.
With the heavy rain lasted for over 12 hours starting Thursday evening, the Nungambakkam weather station has recorded a whopping 180 mm till 8.30 am on Friday.

In the view of the rains, the state government has declared a holiday for the schools and colleges in the Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts for the fourth consecutive day on Friday. The government also advised the private IT companies to declare a holiday for its workforce or allow them to work from home as a precaution due to an expected downpour.

The weather department has warned of heavy rainfall in coastal Tamil Nadu due to low-pressure areas over Sri Lanka and adjoining south-west Bay of Bengal. The heaviest spells of rains happened around 10.30 PM on Thursday with many parts of the city, in particular, places closer to the coast recording cloudburst type rains during this time said private weather blogger.

#ChennaiFloodTrap #ChennaiRains #Chennairains2017 pic.twitter.com/lOU6DqhAeV

— NDMA India (@ndmaindia) November 2, 2017

“A convergence of winds created conducive conditions for thunderstorms to thrive for hours together.  We had mentioned about this possibility in our yesterday’s post but little did we expect Chennai to be battered like this.  Slow moving thunderstorms stalling just off the coast meant the places close to the coast ended up getting dumped by huge rains.  Models were hinting about this stalling scenario and continue to foresee the same today also,” the blogger explained.

Stating that the coastal Tamil Nadu likely to remain under spell of rain next two to three days, the blogger said the Low-Pressure Area continues to persist off the Sri Lankan coast in the Southwest Bay and is expected to remain stationary in the same region for the next day or two while an incoming Low from the South China Sea is expected to keep the dynamics fluid for the next few days.

Office-goers were particularly hit by the sudden heavy rain that was not predicted by the Met department. Several parts of the city witnessed waterlogging after a continuous spell of rain making the life difficult for the commuters who were stranded on the roads due to slow moving traffic. The south Chennai, which bore the brunt of cloud-burst like rains, was hit severely with traffic snarls lasting for several hours on the arterial roads – Anna Salai, IT Corridor and GST road. With the bus services were hit by the slow moving traffic and inundation of several vehicular subways, the commuters were caught unawares and fleeced by the auto rickshaws and fleeced by the call taxis.

Parts of Mudichur, Varadarajapuram, Tambaram, Madipakkam and Velachery in South Chennai and Korattur, Ambattur and Vysarpadi are witnessing inundation.

As on Friday morning, rainwater from cleared in 14 out of the 16 vehicular subways said Chennai Corporation commissioner K Karthikeyan said. Works are on to clear the water from the two other subways as well, he added. The corporation has set up eight camps in which about 200 people sheltered, he said, adding that the foods are being provided to them and to the people who were affected.  

The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday activated its machinery to tackle the monsoon challenge. After a review meeting by Chief Minister E Palaniswami, the state government announced it has kept 115 multipurpose shelters ready in coastal districts. Local ministers and three senior bureaucrats have been designated for each district to coordinate rescue and expedite relief. In Chennai, two ministers have been designated for each zone to expedite relief. More suction pumps to be deployed to clear water-logging in Chennai.