Hundreds of families are battling the Chennai storms, as in 2015.
Chennai:
The 2015 floods washed away IT professional Karthik Narayanan’s family car and other belongings. Five years later, nothing seems to have changed much in his Chennai neighborhood.
Three days after Cyclone Nivar made landfall 150 kilometers away and the rains stopped, hundreds of families are still traversing knee-deep waters in Varadarajapuram, outside the capital of Tamil Nadu, an area struggling with surplus discharge. from nearby Chembarambakkam lake.
Mr. Narayanan has to walk through the waters even to bring medicine to his father, who suffered a stroke. Their mother, a retired teacher, worries that not even an ambulance will be able to reach them in an emergency.
“Due to the flooding and the power outage, he (father) should not have a stroke again. Only this drug will save his life,” Narayanan said. His father is also upset, understandably. “What were officials from the Department of Public Works doing from 2015 to 2020?” he asked angrily.
Kalpana Yuvaraj, a mother of two children, was unable to leave home for three days. The area your house is built on now looks like a lake. “With a baby in hand, I couldn’t even get milk and basic supplies. And there’s no electricity either,” he said.
The overseas education consultant, RP Palaniraj, is another Varadarajapuram resident. He had to turn off his mobile phone during heavy flooding in recent days. “Only today did the water reach knee level. On days one and two, it was chest level. Without power, I couldn’t charge my mobile phone. I left it off and used it for emergencies only.”
Not far away, in the Mudichur area, retired civil engineer Kameswaran (only his first name is known) is struggling to clean up his house that was flooded on Thursday. His wife took refuge in another house. Since his family lost so much during the 2015 disaster, this time he moved furniture and appliances to safer heights.
Recalling the night before Cyclone Nivar made landfall, he said: “The water came in at 2 in the morning. When I woke up, I couldn’t do anything … the water was at my feet.”
With no stormwater drains in this low-lying area, residents say the walls under the overpass built nearby block the natural flow of stormwater. They want a pipe to drain this.
“These are low-lying areas, but the water could clear in two hours. It is a challenge for Chennai,” said State Minister of Revenue and Disaster Management, RB Udhayakumar.
On Friday, having seen an NDTV field report on the situation, Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami finally called on the authorities to find a permanent solution to the problems facing some areas, including Varadarajapuram, Mudichur and Velacherry.
However, with the low pressure building up over the Bay of Bengal, many residents now worry about reliving their nightmare once again.
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