Flood-hit Chennai to get USD 75000 assistance from Singapore

State officials are investigating complaints of negligence on the part of hospital authorities in the state capital Chennai, which is suffering from unprecedented floods, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. The deaths occurred despite Tamil Nadu state’s Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan saying Thursday that all the city hospitals were safe and safety of the patients had been ensured, according to the Indian Express, a local news outlet.

An official statement said the situation is improving as Chennai did not experience heavy rainfall since yesterday and the flood waters were receding. Earlier, Indian Navy Ship Airavat arrived at the Chennai port from Vishakhapatnam for relief work and began deploying teams laden with amenities and supplies focusing mostly on rescuing marooned people from the waterlogged areas. With no electricity for more than four days, they had no way to charge their cellphones, they said.

M. Vijaykumar, a deputy director at the Tamil Nadu fire service, said residents in the area were refusing to leave even though the water level had dropped slightly.

All our helplines, be it over phone, WhatsApp, Twitter or email, they are working actively and responding to the people in distress, the DG said.

Army chief General Dalbir Singh visited Chennai on Friday to review the rescue and relief operations.

“This is a concern”, he said.

Chennai: Heavy rains battered Chennai again on Friday evening just as life began to limp to normalcy amid persisting power cuts and food shortages here and three other Tamil Nadu districts where floods and downpour have claimed 325 lives.

Several voluntary organisations and NGOs supplied food, water bottles and blankets in flood-hit areas.

Although the rains had stopped and Chennai’s airport had partially reopened, more than half of the city was still flooded and some residents trapped on rooftops, too scared to wade through the water, officials said.

But the airport and the main railway station are still closed – a naval air base outside the city has been cleared for a limited number of civilian flights.

This year’s deluge – which experts linked to the El Nino weather pattern, when the waters of the Pacific Ocean get warmer than usual – caught Chennai, with a population of 9.6 million, completely unprepared.