6 min readChennaiDec 6, 2023 10:50 PM IST
First published on: Dec 6, 2023 at 10:15 PM IST
The extreme heavy rainfall in Chennai due to Cyclone Michuang has led to flooding in many areas of Chennai city and its suburbs. The spill from the nearby water bodies has entered the streets, leaving several people stranded.
The showers have stopped but the flooding has turned lives topsy turvy. The 200-feet radial road connecting Pallavaram and Shollinganallur is out of bounds for the people. People are allowed to reach only Kamakshi Hospital but cannot travel further.
The hospital itself is hit by the flood and the staff are involved in dishing it out to stop it from entering the wards.
At West Tambaram, people are still reeling as the water has entered the households.
While the disaster response forces are operating in areas like Varadharajapuram, the residents of other areas, including Bharathi Nagar, CTO Colony and Good Will Nagar are longing for government attention.
Wading through the waterlogged streets, one can spot sewage-mixed rain water inside residences. While some people have vacated their residences, some others are still unable to come out and are awaiting help. And in sheer desperation, they are ready to grab anything that comes their way.
The residents are having to wait in long queues before ATMs to get cash as there is no network connectivity. With that cash, they are having to wait at longer queues to just buy a packet of milk.
Naresh of Good Will Nagar, who works at a private firm in Chennai, had shifted here from Perambur in 2015, said, “I have a 90-year-old grandmother at home. We are just praying to all the gods out there that everyone in our family is in good health until we move out from here. There are no emergency rescue teams present here to provide immediate medical attention.”
A medical help desk was set up near the signal and the residents were provided food and water and the police officers provided them details of how they could reach other areas. (Express Photo)
He added, “We have a spare room on the top floor to dump extra items and now we all have sought refuge there. There are 46 families in my apartment struggling here. Other flood-affected areas in the city are getting attention but officials are not focusing on our neighbourhood. They didn’t initiate measures to pump out the water using high power motors. Only a few had come by boat to give some biscuits and bottled water but that won’t help.”
Elsi (62), a home-maker, said she lives alone at Bharathi Nagar and her son lives in Mumbai and she had bought the house in Good Will Nagar to help her mother lead a peaceful life. However, she is now forced to seek accommodation at a relative’s office as her entire house is flooded and she is now more worried about the things back at home.
The residents were evacuated in boats and trucks pressed in service by the state government and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). (Express Photo)
Another resident claimed that the things offered by the teams, like biscuits, are hurled at them from a distance due to the depth of the water in some places and many items have gone for a waste as they fell in the water.
“We are not getting food on time. From morning till evening, our entire family is surviving on biscuits and the milk we are getting in the morning. We are also not being given even an extra bottle of water,” said Lalitha (75) of Good Will Nagar.
At Perumbakkam, one of the worst affected areas of Chennai, during the 2015 floods, the residents were evacuated in boats and trucks pressed in service by the state government and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
Some residents of this pocket said they left their homes with whatever they could after surviving in their households without food, electricity and connectivity for three days.
Wading through the waterlogged streets, one can spot sewage-mixed rain water inside residences. (Express Photo)
“We ran out of food after Monday; it was terrible. We just hoped that some miracle would happen and someone would rescue us but it took two days for that to happen. Our apartment has close to 5,000 residents and all of them want to be out soon and it was sort of a stressful period. I am heading to my friend’s house near Guindy,” R Ashok Nathan, a resident of Embassy Residency said.
Around 5 pm on Wednesday, the boat services stopped as they couldn’t manoeuvre in the dark but the workers informed the officials that the majority of them had been rescued.
A medical help desk was set up near the signal and the residents were provided food and water and the police officers provided them details of how they could reach other areas.
A representative of Gleneagles Global Hospital, which too is inundated, said they have rescued all their patients. “There were around 20 serious cases and all of them were immediately shifted to other hospitals. We have informed them that they would be provided continuous treatment by our doctors even at other hospitals,” he said.
The spill from the nearby water bodies has entered the streets, leaving several people stranded. (Express Photo) 
A medical help desk was set up near the signal and the residents were provided food and water and the police officers provided them details of how they could reach other areas. (Express Photo)
The residents were evacuated in boats and trucks pressed in service by the state government and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). (Express Photo)
Wading through the waterlogged streets, one can spot sewage-mixed rain water inside residences. (Express Photo)
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