Chennai: Heavy rains that lashed Chennai on Wednesday morning for over three hours flooded many roads, particularly in the southern part of the metropolis, disrupting normal life, causing massive traffic snarls, inundating residential localities and even affecting flight operations, besides evoking memories of the devastating 2015 floods as the Chembarambakkam lake was opened with a flood warning to those on the banks of River Adyar.
Apart from the Chembarambakkam lake filling up fast and water reaching the 22.35 feet mark, against the full level of 24 feet, and the release of water increased to 1500 cubic feet, the weather forecast of the present low pressure area over South Andaman sea and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal becoming a cyclonic storm in two days gave a fright to the people as memories of the 2015 situation returned to their collective minds.
Since it was the surging waters from the lake that flooded several parts of Chennai with the Adyar River overflowing, unable to hold the heavy and sudden discharge of excess water into it in 2015, fear gripped people living in low lying areas all over the city even as they watched most of the roads going under a thick sheet of water in the about three hour downpour throwing normal life out of gear.
Though the continuous showers wreaked havoc all over the city, the southern parts were more hit as most air passengers, pilots and engineers could not reach the Meenambakkam airport on time, leading to delays in the departures of 22 flights between 9 am and 1 pm. Among them were international flights to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo and Doha.
Airport authorities said that the rains also caused disruption in the preparatory work for the flight take offs as operations like the loading of baggage into aircraft, food and water were affected due to the continuous rains, besides the late arrival of passengers, crew members and other staff.
One main reason for that was the GST Road, on which the airport is located, was among the many major roads that faced inundation, apart from those in other suburbs like Tambaram, Mudichur, Pammal, Vellacherry, Pallavaram, Chrompet, Peerkankaranai and Chembakkam.
Other road users were affected by the flooding, particularly students, as it made travel by vehicles, public transport and on foot difficult. With water filling up the subway connecting Tambaram West with Tambaram East, many people could not use the link road at all and were forced to take long detours wading through thoroughfares that too were flooded.
In many localities, people found themselves marooned as residential colonies and habitations were surrounded by water due to the clogging of drainages due to various reasons. The traffic snarls caused by the water logging not only led to office-goers unable to reach their destinations on time but also led to chaos on the roads and over bridges with many two-wheelers getting stalled due to water entering the silencers.
With the chaotic traffic spilling over to the GST Road beyond Tambaram, the gateway to the city, movement of vehicles, entering and leaving the city, came to a grinding halt, triggering fears of jams on the highways.
The overall situation also gave rise to fears of a worse scenario if the low pressure area over South Andamans Sea and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm and brought more rains to Chennai. For now, the perception is that there was no way for excess water to get drained from the roads and other localities and more rains could only maroon more people.
Though the opening of the Chembarambakkam lake drew curious onlookers to the spot where the excess water gushes out spraying a white surf for taking selfies, the authorities banned them from entering the place.
Panic also increased among the people for more water flowed into Chembarambakkam due to heavy rains in the catchment areas, which had already started happening, it would immediately be let out to only raise the level in the Adyar River which flows through several places in Chennai and its suburbs before draining itself into the Bay of Bengal.
Police and revenue officials have intensified their vigil on the bank of Adyar River and for it was in those places that water entered residential and commercial areas causing devastation earlier. Since 2015, many new housing colonies and gated communities have sprung up in those flood-prone areas, raising more concerns.
