Chennai: 120 minutes of rain brings city to a standstill

Strong spells of rain took the city by surprise for about three hours from 6pm on Wednesday, triggering traffic snarls and road inundations. Between 6pm and 9pm, an average of 10cm rain was received across the city, with Meenambakkam recording 20cm. The lowest was at Manali, which received about 7.8cm.

Also See: Chennai Rains Live

Even as reports of submerged subways and water-logged roads and residential localities started trickling in, chief minister MK Stalin asked bureaucrats and elected representatives to visit different localities and take up relief work. HR&CE Minister P K Sekarbabu and mayor R Priya stepped out to inspect rescue work.

Collectors of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur declared holiday to schools on Thursday. Tiruvallur district announced holiday for colleges as well. Suburban train services on Tambaram as well as Tiruvallur routes were either cancelled or delayed for a couple of hours.

Traffic was a crawl on most roads, with at least five of the 14 subways in the city getting inundated. Major roads had water stagnation for a couple of hours. Five subways -- Gengureddy, Perambur, Duraisamy, Nungambakkam and Aranganathan -- were inundated while the one at Perambur was closed for traffic as of 8.30pm and were cleared off by 9.30pm. The Tambaram railway subway too was inundated. All subways and thoroughfares were free of water-logging by 10pm.

The most affected stretches were Bazullah Road, North Usman Road, Mandaveli Bus Stand, Haddows Road, OMR and North Chennai areas like Perambur and Vyasarpadi. In places like Padi and Anna Nagar, water entered houses.

In less than an hour -- from 6pm to 7pm -- Kolathur faced 6.2cm rain, Ambattur received 6cm, Ennore received4.5 cm and some Central Chennai areas received 3cm.

Vehicles clogged up OMR for hours, as the rain picked up on Wednesday evening. It took two hours to cross the stretch from Sholinganallur to Thoraipakkam, said motorists.

GCC commissioner Dr J Radhakrishnan said chief minister had instructed all officials to be on the field. “We will have motors running in low-lying areas throughout the night,” he said.

Inundation in core city areas like T Nagar and Nandanam was because water could not flow from Mambalam and Nandanam canals into Adyar River because the river saw heavy flow due to release at the rate of 1500 cusecs from Chembarambakkam. “While Buckingham canal is brimming, Adyar river is also carrying a high waterload. We hope the water will drain out by mid-night,” said deputy commissioner works G S Sameeran.

Suburban trains on Chennai-Tiruvallur route were delayed by close to an hour after tracks got waterlogged between Ambattur and Avadi. The services were hit from 7.30pm.

Orange Alert

The IMD has issued an orange alert for the city and neighbouring districts this weekend and predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall.

The sharp spell of showers is due to a weather system that intensified into a well-marked low pressure on Wednesday and could further strengthen into a cyclonic storm.

S Balachandran, deputy director general, IMD, said Wednesday’s rainfall was due to a cyclonic circulation over Sri Lanka and neighbourhoods in the lower tropospheric levels. The well-marked low-pressure area over southeast Bay of Bengal may move west-northwestwards and intensify into a depression on Thursday, and gradually intensify further into a cyclonic storm over southwest Bay of Bengal around December 2.

There are chances of rainfall with thunderstorms in Tamil Nadu till December 3.

For the next 48 hours, the city and the suburbs may receive moderate-intensity rainfall, with thunderstorms and lightning in some areas.

Since October 1, Chennai has recorded 504.1 mm of rainfall, which is 21% below normal, and Tamil Nadu has registered 319.4 mm of rainfall, 8% below normal.


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