Modi to visit Chennai as floods leave thousands in deep waters

During his Chennai visit, Modi surveyed the flood-affected areas of Chennai, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts in Tamil Nadu, and announced a relief fund of $141 million.

The floods in Chennai were caused by unregulated urbanization and climate-change induced freak weather, Sunita Narain, director general of New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment said. He said that the declared amount is over and above the Rs. 940 crores which was released earlier.

More than 280 people have been killed and thousands of residents displaced as the south-eastern state continues to experience its heaviest rainfall in a century.

“The water level started decreasing in most of the areas and in the next 48 hours, complete water level will be decreased”, the Met department said. 57 other patients who were also on ventilator support have been shifted to other hospitals in the city, ” Tamil Nadu health official J Radhakrishnan told the BBC Hindi.

The devastating rainfalls in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have overrun swathes of land, forcing thousands to abandon their homes while others remained trapped in the rising floods.

“This rainfall has broken a 100-year record and has created an emergency situation in Chennai”, Home Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament after days of torrential rain led to a dramatic worsening of the weeks-long crisis. Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force has converted the INS Rajali naval airbase in Arakonam in Vellore district into a temporary airport as the Chennai airport runway is flooded and closed till December 6.

Schools, colleges and factories are shut, exams postponed and power supply suspended in most parts of the city.

Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar on Friday expressed his solidarity with the victims of floods in Chennai and hoped that the city will bounce back to normalcy soon.

“We have rescued more than 10,000 people till now”. Most deaths in the last month of rains have been due to drowning, electrocution and wall collapses.

Mr Modi travelled to Tamil Nadu’s capital city yesterday to get a first-hand view of the disaster.

Chennai saw only slight rains on Thursday but water levels had not receded since Wednesday morning, when a massive release of water from Chembarambakkam reservoir swamped low-lying areas.