Chennai struggles to stay afloat as cyclone triggers heavy rains
Intense showers and strong winds battered Chennai on Monday as the approaching Cyclone Michaung wreaked havoc across the city.
Intense showers and strong winds battered Chennai on Monday as the approaching Cyclone Michaung wreaked havoc across the city, submerging nearly every neighbourhood, halting flight operations, marooning hundreds, destroying infrastructure and killing at least five people.
As roads turned to rivers, state and central disaster response teams set out to rescue people on boats and rafts, even as the torrents swept away vehicles and uprooted dozens of trees across the coastal city. The gusts also snapped power lines, leaving Chennai without electricity for most of Monday.
The Tamil Nadu capital received 415mm in less than 24 hours — between 8.30pm on Sunday and 1.30pm on Monday, according to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a downpour that weather experts said was the most in Chennai since the brutal floods in December 2015, which left 250 people dead.
And even as Chennai struggled to stay afloat amid the unforgiving rain and households were plunged into darkness, more rain pummelled the city on Monday, with experts predicting that the showers wouldn’t relent, but reduce, till Cyclone Michaung moved a considerable distance away from the city.
“Today was the highest impact day for Tamil Nadu. The impact on Tamil Nadu will gradually reduce now. The system is moving away towards Andhra Pradesh now. Coastal Andhra Pradesh should be prepared for maximum impact. The cyclone will hit the coast with maximum wind speed of 90 to 100 km/ph. There will be very strong winds and extremely heavy rain till tomorrow noon. We are expecting the severe cyclone to cross close to Bapatla (in Andhra Pradesh). Storm surge of 1 to 1.5 metres is expected,” IMD director general M Mohapatra said.
The cyclone, which intensified on Monday morning and was classified as a “severe cyclonic storm”, lay around 120km north-northeast of Chennai, said the IMD, adding that Michaung would likely move north.
It may make landfall in Bapatla town in Andhra Pradesh around noon on Tuesday, IMD said in its evening bulletin.
Michaung also lashed coastal Tamil Nadu with winds of between 90 and 100km/hr, with gusts of up to 110km/hour, said weather officials.
The rains inundated nearly every part of the city, with the low-lying neighbourhoods in southern Chennai bearing the brunt of the floods, including Perungudi, Velachery and Guduvanchery.
Videos on social media showed dozens of cars being washed down driveways and colony lanes, forcing residents to park their vehicles on flyovers.
Rescue officials fanned out across Chennai, said government spokespeople.
“More than 2,000 people were moved to government relief camps in Chennai,” said a Tamil Nadu government official.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the Centre will assist the Tamil Nadu government to deal with heavy rains, while Union home minister Amit Shah spoke to chief minister MK Stalin.
The chief minister asked Shah for more National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) teams to help relief efforts.
“I request all political parties and volunteers to join hands with the government to recover from this #CycloneMichuang calamity which is pouring unprecedented rains. I have appointed 13 ministers to speed up the relief work. Additional personnel are engaged in field work,” Stalin said in a post on X.
The Chennai airport was also shuton Monday, as rainwater drowned the runway and stranded several aircraft. All flights to and from the busy airport were cancelled till 9am on Tuesday, the Chennai airport operator said in a post on X on Monday.
Similarly, several trains scheduled to reach or travel through Chennai were cancelled as well, officials of the Southern Railways said.
And as the river Adyar, which runs through the city and meets the Bay of Bengal, spilled over, officials warned people of the risk of crocodiles in the waters, urging residents to leave them “unprovoked” in the event of contact.
Additional chief secretary (environment, climate change and forests) of the Tamil Nadu government, Supriya Sahu, in a post on X said the crocodiles were harmless.
“These are shy elusive animals and avoid human contact. There is no possibility of harm to humans IF these animals are left alone & unprovoked,” she posted.
Experts said the swelling Adyar had worsened the floods.
Environment activist Nityanand explained that the high tides prevent water from draining out to sea through rivers.
“Widespread flooding is certain unless rain abates,” he said.
“Cyclone Michaung is anticipated to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm on Tuesday, with a projected landfall along the Andhra Pradesh coast on December 5. According to a CEEW study that analysed the occurrence of cyclones in the last five decades, districts which were mostly exposed to cyclones were found to be concentrated along the eastern coast of India. This exposure has made governments enhance adaptive capacity and reduce the risk to life through initiatives like the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project,” said Vishwas Chitale, senior programme lead, CEEW.
Residents called the recurrent floods a “nightmare”.
“It is the same situation for us every year with no permanent solution,” said VS Jayaram, a resident of T Nagar, who shifted to another locality on Sunday, after a cyclone alert was issued on Friday.
People across neighbourhoods waded through waist-deep water to any functioning grocery stores in search of food and supplies, while several others made desperate appeals on social media.