Agencies/Chennai

The heaviest rainfall in over a century caused massive flooding across Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu, driving thousands from their homes, shutting auto factories and paralysing the airport.
The national weather office predicted three more days of torrential downpours in the southern state.
“There will be no respite,” Laxman Singh Rathore of the India Meteorological Department told reporters yesterday.
No deaths were reported in the latest floods, but since heavy rain set in on November 12 there have been 150 deaths in Tamil Nadu. More than 200 people were critically injured over the past 24 hours in Chennai, a senior home ministry official said.
Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in New Delhi that the situation in Chennai was “unheard of and unprecedented”, and promised all help to the beleaguered city and other areas.
Residents and officials admitted that almost everyone in Chennai had been affected one way or the other by the devastating floods caused by torrential rains.
Thousands of passengers were stranded at the Chennai airport and railway stations.
Electricity supply snapped in many areas. Telephone services too were hit.
With schools and colleges shut, and vast areas under sheets of water, most buses went off the roads and suburban train services were suspended after waters flooded the tracks.
Auto-rickshaws and taxis plied in some parts of Chennai but fleeced commuters. A taxi driver reportedly charged Rs4,500 to ferry three people from the airport to a hotel on Anna Salai, the main arterial road.
Several parts of Anna Salai were under water.
Unlike in the past, even up-market localities like Shastri Nagar, Anna Nagar, Alwarpet and Mylapore were flooded.
Schools and colleges have been shut for over 15 days. Schools in Chennai functioned only for two days last week before the rains hit again.
Hutments along the Adyar river bank have submerged till their roofs. With the river overflowing, traffic over the Adayar bridge near Saidapet was closed for safety.
Surplus water from Poondi reservoir, which supplies water to Chennai, was released, causing more misery. Water level in the Chembarambakkam, Puzhal and Sholavaram reservoirs have also touched the danger mark.
The Southern Railway cancelled 13 trains out of Egmore station and four trains from Chennai Central. Ten trains from other stations too were axed.
But some still dared to conduct weddings.
“Today is an auspicious day for marriages. In our hall a wedding was conducted as planned,” K M Kannan, manager of the AVM Rajeshwari Kalyana Mandapam in south Chennai, saisd.
But Kannan added: “I have sent my family to Erode as water was threatening to enter our house. There has been no power supply in our area since yesterday.”
Several private companies have declared a holiday. Some government offices were closed yesterday.
The Hindu and Business Standard newspapers did not come out yesterday due to heavy rains, said an employee of one of the dailies.
Police blocked the wide stretch of Chennai beach as a precaution.
According to officials, the Chennai airport has been shut till today morning and all flights have been cancelled after the runway was flooded.
“Water entered our apartment and we had to shift to our neighbour’s house on the first floor,” Revathi Vasan, a resident of west Mambalam in the heart of Chennai, said.
“Another family on the ground floor has also shifted with us,” she said. “There is waist deep water around our apartment.”
In suburban areas, flooding was severe with water levels covering ground floors and threatening to enter the first floors of housing apartments.
Fortunately, people living at higher levels were opening their doors to strangers, several residents said. Movie theatres and malls too came to the rescue of the flood-affected.
Major markets like in Anna Nagar could not escape the flooding.
In many areas, people made makeshift boats by tying up empty barrels to reach safer places.
Hotels were swamped by frantic calls from residents and visitors for accommodation.
Suresh, who works with a private company, said: “In my area (Villivakkam), the water has reached chest level. I waded through rain water for a couple of kilometres to reach my work place.”
Physician Rupam Choudhury said he and a friend had to wade through neck-deep water to reach high ground from where an army truck brought him to his hospital in the heart of Chennai.
Dr A Ramachandran’s Diabetes Hospital was running out of oxygen for patients and diesel for power generators, he said by telephone. “
“The biggest challenge is to find a way to clear the inundated airport and main roads,” said Anurag Gupta at the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in New Delhi.
Passengers stranded at the airport said they did not know when they would be able to fly, or where to stay if they could not. “All of us here are getting agitated because none of the hotels nearby are vacant. Where do we go?” traveller Vinit Jain said.
In a limited initial relief effort, four helicopters dropped food, water and medicines, while fishing boats commandeered by the military were collecting stranded residents. A major relief effort by 5,000 soldiers was promised within 24 hours.
“The entire state machinery has collapsed. Most officials are forced to sit at home. It’s a very frustrating situation,” said a home ministry official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the record.
Weather experts say the seasonal northeast monsoon was responsible for the flooding in the city, but was amplified this year by El Nino, a warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean that can have far-reaching climate effects.
Tamil Nadu is a major rice and sugar cane producing region, and a senior member of a local farmers’ association said floods had washed out up to four agricultural districts.
Hundreds of divers and army rescue teams entered inundated homes, taking the injured to hospital. Authorities said more than a million people were affected by the flooding, with some residents bemoaning the slow response of the relief teams.
Social media networks carried many appeals for help, while others offered assistance. Siddarth, a popular Tamil film actor, was co-ordinating a relief effort on Twitter.
“The police want to help but there are no boats. We are trying not to panic,” said Ramana Goda, who took refuge at a police station after fleeing his home with his family overnight.