Chennai: Heavy rains from Cyclone Michaung leaves trail of destruction in city

People wade through a road in Chennai city on 6 December

By Nikhila Henry in Delhi and Muralidharan Kasivishwanathan in Chennai.

News from BBC

Chennai city is wet and battling to return to normal after a cyclone barreled through the southern coast of India earlier this week.

In the cities of the city, regulators are attempting to remove water from homes and streets.

Some locals claim they frequently experience power outages and are unable to get basic needs.

In Tamil Nadu state, whose capital is Chennai, at least 18 people have perished in rain-related situations.

The storm touched down on Tuesday in the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh; it, a child was killed and significant crop damage was reported before the storm subsided into an intense depression.

About 24cm ( 9.4in ) of rain fell on Chennai on Monday; according to India’s meteorological department, rainfall over 21 cm is considered “extremely heavy.”

The torrential downpours brought back memories of the deadly floods that killed more than 200 people in Chennai, one of India’s largest towns and a major commercial hub, in 2015. Some American cities, according to experts, lack proper urban planning and unregulated construction, making them unprepared to handle extreme weather events.

After its airport was flooded on Monday, the active Chennai airports was closed for the day. Over the past three weeks, tens of trains have been canceled. According to the Mint newspaper, the flooding was anticipated to have a” severe” economic impact because it disrupted production at several businesses, including Apple supplier Foxconn.

Municipal officials in Chennai were pumping water out of the state’s southern cities ‘ sidewalks on Thursday to make it possible for cars to proceed.

Officials pumped out” as little water as possible after 36 hours of continuous weather,” according to Greater Chennai Corporation director J Radhakrishnan, who spoke to BBC Tamil. He continued by saying that three-quarters of the town had experienced a decline in floods as of Wednesday evening.

Over the past three weeks, thousands of people have been evacuated to pleasure camps; many of them have also been rescued in plastic and fiber boats from their flooded homes. In some places, officials are also working to restock the water supply.

Stranded passengers gather at a railway station while waiting for their trains after heavy rains in Chennai on December 6, 2023.

According to experts, there is n’t much room for water to drain away due to the rapid design.

David Manohar, an advocate who studies industrial flooding, told BBC Tamil that “homes are flooded whenever it rains seriously because buildings have been built on the muddy reservoir areas of lakes and ponds in some of Chennai’s suburbs.”

While improved stormwater drainage systems can prevent flooding, Raj Bhagat P, a geo-analytic expert, told Reuters that even that would not be much use during “very large and extremely large floods.”

The Tamil Nadu government has requested 50 billion rupees ($ 600,000, £478 million ) in interim federal aid for the state. Infrastructure has been” severely hit, impacting lakhs,” according to Chief Minister MK Stalin in a post on X ( previously Twitter ).

Officials will conduct a study to determine which areas ‘ rainwater drains did not function as effectively as they should, according to Mr. Radhakrishnan.

However, that is a drawn-out method. We are currently concentrating on the evacuation work, he said.

In Chennai, Saradha, Prabhakar Tamilarasu, and Asfhak Ahamed provided further monitoring.

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