Chennai: Boats rescuing women and children from inundated homes, two-wheelers floating in a cesspool of stormwater and queues for essentials at every street corner. Chennai has come to a standstill ever since Michaung made landfall over the eastern coast as a super cyclone earlier this week.
As of Wednesday, the super cyclone had claimed at least 17 lives, besides displacing hundreds of thousands in Chennai alone. Senior officials in the Tamil Nadu government told ThePrint that nearly 61,000 relief camps were set up across the state to accommodate those affected.
Following appeals by DMK MP T.R. Baalu in the Lok Sabha and Tiruchi Siva in the Rajya Sabha, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting interim relief of Rs 5,060 crore for “immediate restoration efforts. He also “detailed the severe impacts” the super cyclone had on Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram, and Chengalpattu.
Dear Hon'ble PM Thiru. @narendramodi, in response to #CycloneMichaung's devastation, I have detailed the severe impacts on Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram, and Chengalpattu in my recent letter. Our infrastructure is severely hit, impacting lakhs, and many are struggling with… pic.twitter.com/Wsq5rg7KNb
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) December 6, 2023
While Michaung has now weakened into a deep depression over central coastal Andhra Pradesh, parts of Chennai continued to experience flooding, power cuts and a scramble for essential supplies Wednesday.
Reports of severe waterlogging have come to light from Velachery, Vijaya Nagar, Ram Nagar, Kovilambakkam, Pallikaranai, Madipakkam, Perungalathur, Thoraipakkam, Tambaram, Semmancheri, Perumbakkam, Old Washermanpet and Mylapore.
According to official data, 399 locations across the city are witnessing stormwater stagnation. These include 96 locations in north Chennai, 103 in central Chennai and 200 in south Chennai.
“The Global Flood Awareness System (GLOFAS) model from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) indicates high flows to continue around Chennai river basin for the next day or two which will delay draining of water from the streets, though to be honest I am using this model for the first time for an urban set up like Chennai,” noted K. Srikanth, an independent weather blogger based in the city.
He added that some parts of Chennai “may see passing showers at times” but a downpour is unlikely going forward.
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‘More rains than 2015’
With life grinding to a standstill in parts of the city, one could not help but draw parallels between the situation now and the downpour in November-December 2015.
“The rains during Cyclone Michaung exceeded those in 2015. While the 2015 floods were man-made due to release of water from Chembarambakkam lake, the current situation is a natural flood. The damage is comparatively less than that of the previous floods,” CM Stalin had told reporters Tuesday.
He added that an investment of Rs 4,000 crore on stormwater drains helped the city minimise the effect of the super cyclone during which Meenambakkam station recorded average rainfall of 430 mm and Perungudi 440 mm in 36 hours — intensity not seen in 47 years.
According to Stalin, in 2015, 199 people lost their lives.
Comparing the rains in 2015 and 2023, he said that Chennai had received 44 cm rain in Perungudi area and 43 cm at Meenambakkam in just 36 hours, and in 2015, it was 34.5 cm and 29.4 cm in 24 hours. Between December 3 and 5, Nungambakkam got 47 cm, Tambaram recorded 41 cm, Chembarambakkam recorded 37 cm and Avadi recorded 56 cm of rainfall.
In 2018, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report on the 2015 floods had stated that the 2015 deluge was a “man-made catastrophe” and that the failure to release water from Chembarambakkam lake as a reason for the flooding. The report had also held the then Tamil Nadu government responsible for the mishap.
Opposition flak
Meanwhile, AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami criticised the DMK government’s Rs 4,000 crore storm water drain system on X said, “For a normal rain, Chennai is floating. This is evidence of the ‘Dravidian model’ government.”
4,000 கோடி ரூபாய் செலவு செய்தும் ஏன் மழை தண்ணீர் வடியவில்லை என்று மக்கள் கேட்கிறார்கள்?
– மாண்புமிகு கழகப் பொதுச்செயலாளர் "புரட்சித் தமிழர்" @EPSTamilNadu அவர்கள் pic.twitter.com/SUWe1uaPL7
— AIADMK IT WING (@AIADMKITWINGOFL) December 5, 2023
Countering this, Stalin in his press meet said, “In 2015, one lakh cusec water was let open from the Chembarambakkam reservoir. That was man-made floods. This time, it was natural flooding.”
BJP’s state chief K Annamalai meanwhile said that the Modi government had since 2015 allocated Rs 4,397 crore for sewage and stormwater drains, and the state has spent Rs 4,000 crore. “People are questioning where has all this money gone? The situation on the ground is the same year after year.”
He further said that the BJP cadres will continue doing their relief work to help the affected but “once this is over, we got a lot of hard questions for the Tamil Nadu DMK, the ruling government for completely messing up the whole process”.
Relief operations in the city
Stalin visited some of the affected areas and distributed food and essential commodities at a relief centre in the city. He had also inspected the efforts taken by the civic department to drain water and restore normalcy.
There are 1,023 motor pumps working across the affected areas to pump out water, and the government has set up 43 health camps. As of Wednesday, 11,18,350 food packets had been distributed, 297 boats and 72 coracles had been deployed in the city, and 337 wood-cutting machines pressed into operation to remove fallen trees.
Power is yet to be restored in parts of the city that are still inundated. Of the 1,812 electricity feeders, only 1,737 are operational and 95 feeders which need restoration are in heavy waterlogged areas like Ponneri-Ennore region, Pallikaranai, Perumbakkam, Velacherry region.
For the first time since 2015, the Chembarambakkam reservoir in Chennai touched the 23-feet mark in storage. The reservoir had 23.45 feet water on Wednesday, and had an inflow of 4,166 cusecs, and discharge was recorded at 6,110 cusecs.
The Poondi reservoir, which has a capacity of 35 feet, had 34.10 feet water and saw an inflow of 8,585 cusecs and discharge from it was also 8,585 cusecs. Meanwhile, the Red Hills and Cholavaram reservoirs too were in a similar situation.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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