Relief operation under way after Chennai floods

Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu and fourth-most-populous city in India, experienced its wettest December day in over a century this week, according to AccuWeather.

India suffers severe flooding every year during the annual monsoon rains from June to September. In Tamil Nadu, Chennai districts Cuddalore, Thiruvallur, Kanchipuram have caused widespread destruction by heavy rain. “We have collected the relief material in form of packaged water, ready to eat meal packets, blankets and medicines and have sent it with the Coast Guard ships which were passing by Goa coast”, MPT chairman I Jeyakumar told IANS on Saturday. Cheques should be made payable to “Singapore Red Cross Society”.

Members of the public can make donations at the Red Cross House from 9.30 am to 8 pm on Mondays to Fridays, and till 3 pm on weekends starting from Dec 7. They say this is still very much a rescue operation. It is in the process of contacting the remaining Singaporeans.

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.

The image compares the response of media and government towards the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and the Chennai floods. “Thank you for your letter dated December 4 and your offer of Rs 5 crore out of the Odisha Chief Minister’s Relief Fund”, she said in a letter to Patnaik.

“We are asking for more help from the army, the national disaster relief team”, Atulya Mishra, relief commissioner of the state of Tamil Nadu, reportedly said. Another 1,000 rescue force workers and more than 850 additional army officers are expected to join the operations in the next few days.

He added that power has been restored in several areas that were not waterlogged and the communications network has also improved.

“Where was the government when we were stranded?” asked Vivek Balaji, a resident of West Mambalam, a neighborhood in southern Chennai.

Seema Agarwal, a resident, said she had seen many people queuing at bus stops to leave the city.

PM Narendra Modi, who travelled to Chennai, has promised $150m (£99m) to the flood-hit Tamil Nadu state.

The southern Indian city’s failure to cope with a threefold increase in seasonal rainfall brought back memories of similar flooding in Mumbai that followed a cloudburst in 2005.

Criticising the move, Pattali Makkal Katchi leader S Ramadoss said: “The ruling party members are not interested in relief works but are interested in getting publicity”.

The Tez news channel, part of the India Today group, had an anchor describing the horrific conditions in Chennai standing in the studio.

The flooding is an indictment of all levels of government-central, state and city-that have been promoting Chennai as a “developed” metropolis in order to attract investors and allowed uncontrolled and unsafe development throughout the city. A trade body said losses to businesses from the record downpour could reach more than 150 billion rupees.