IANS
CHENNAI, DECEMBER 4
Life is limping back to normalcy in a few parts of Chennai as rains have stopped and the water level has begun to recede. But, in water-logged areas, the people’s misery continues.
Some shops opened in Mylapore and Teynampet, while electricity supply was restored wherever possible. Most areas were without power.
Skeletal public transport was operational since Friday morning in areas where inundation has gone down. Autorickshaws were available and plying, but harried commuters complained of overcharging by drivers.
Many areas in Chennai still remain under water and supplies of essential commodities have been difficult to come by, said residents.
“Waterlogging continues to be there. The only mercy was that there were no rains,” said Viswanath, a resident.
The water flow in Adyar river has come down as has the quantum of surplus water released into the river from the Chembarambakkam lake.
The Southern Railway has announced special trains to Tirunelveli, Rameswaram and Howrah from Chennai Beach station.
However, communication lines -- landlines and mobile connections -- continued to be disrupted.
In heavily flooded areas like Mudichur and Tambaram, people are looking up to the skies and praying for the rains to stop - and for relief materials.
The heaviest rains in a century and the resultant floods have left 269 people dead in Tamil Nadu.
Chennai has seen extensive waterlogging, with water gushing into homes, causing misery and acute problems to residents.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday undertook an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas and then announced Rs.1,000 crore as immediate relief to the state.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh has described the situation in Chennai and three other districts as “alarming”.
Chennai airport to resume partial operations from today
In what can bring in some respite to the stranded passengers, the Chennai Airport will resume partial operations from Saturday, with the runway found to be safe for landings and departures.
“Flight operations from Chennai airport will resume partially from tomorrow. The flights will operate during the day time,” Airports Authority of India (AAI) Chairman R K Srivastava told PTI.
The airport would open at 6 AM and flights would operate till day light is there, he said.
At present the operations at the Chennai airport are suspended due to heavy rains and water logging on the runway.
Chennai city and suburbs today started picking up crumbs of life with flood waters receding in several areas but lakhs of people continued to suffer from lack of supply of essentials including water, power, milk and food items.
Meanwhile, in a very tragic incident, at least 18 people died due to power failure in one of the hospitals in the flood-hit Chennai city today.
According to reports, some patients were brought to the Madras Institute of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (MIOT) Hospital in a critical condition, However, 18 of them could not be saved as power outage led to ventilator failure during their treatment.
Mobile phone services, which had taken a severe beating following the heavy downpour on Tuesday, were partially restored even as other services such as ATMs continued to remain shut.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had yesterday conducted separate aerial surveys of the areas battered by the unprecedented rains that have killed 269 people till now.
