Chennai Floods: Residents battle patchy rescue efforts, shortage of food and water

Residents trapped on rooftops beg for food to be air-dropped; PM Modi to make aerial survey of city

The situation in Chennai offered some respite after it stopped raining Thursday morning, allowing rescue teams to reach stranded residents, many on rooftops begging for succour and food to be dropped from helicopters.

Normal life continued to be in a shambles, with people running out of essential supplies such as food, water and medicines. Water levels, too, are yet to recede, making it impossible for people to get around, even to check on others.

Communication lines and power supplies, too, have been down in the city over the past two days.

It is not clear how long the situation will persist; the weather department has predicted continuous rainfall – which started in large bursts last month – for another three days.

Meanwhile, the Adyar river that passes through the city has overrun its banks, largely because of the release of estimated 30,000 cusecs of water from the Chembarambakkam lake, one of city's sources of drinking water.

For the first time in more than 40 years, the Adyar’s level has breached the road and the Maraimalai Adigal bridge in Saidapet, cutting off the arterial Anna Salai (Mount Road). Fresh flooding of the streets in the heart of the city in areas like Kodambakkam, T Nagar and Ashok Nagar has been caused by the release of the lake waters.

The death toll from the floods in the state has reached 269, Home Minister Rajnath Singh told Indian Parliament Thursday morning.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Army, Navy and commandos of police and fire service personnel have been deployed for rescue and relief works in the worst-affected areas of Kotturpuram, Jafferkhanpet and Nandanam.

The Indian Air Force has already airlifted 200 persons to Hyderabad. The aircraft took off from the Navy’s air base INS Rajali at Arakonam, around 70 km from the city.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to arrive at Arakonam Rajali base, near Chennai, from where he will make an aerial survey of the city in a helicopter.

Arakonam is also likely to handle passenger flights as Chennai airport will remain shut till December 6 after heavy flooding grounded all flights. The airport was hit due to flood and rain.

Several passengers continue to be stranded in the railway stations and airports. Southern Railways on Thursday cancelled 20 trains out of Chennai Central Station and Chennai Egmore Station and seven trains from other stations.

Jet Airways said guests with confirmed tickets to and from Chennai between December 1 and 8, 2015 would be allowed a full refund or complimentary change of booking to alternative dates, depending on seat availability.

Air India took a slightly more generous view, saying it would “honour and accept Air India tickets … from/to Chennai for travel from/to nearest airport like Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Vishakhapatnam, Kozhikode, Coimbatore, Trichy,  Madurai, Kochi, Vijayawada and Tirupati till December,15^th, 2015  without any additional charge”.