CHENNAI: As if they could wash away all the virus, the overcast clouds over Chennai rendered a ballistic downpour on Thursday, giving a drum roll start to the North East monsoon for this year.
A whopping 18 cm of rainfall was recorded by the DGP office weather station in Mylapore, as Chennai and its suburbs were pounded by heavy showers in the wee hours of the day.
The rains didn’t spare many streets of the city and gave the residents a grim reminder of ‘ghosts from 2015 past’. Valasaravakkam, Egmore, Pulianthope, Mudichur, Tondiarpet, Pallikaranai, Vyasarpadi, etc. were among the worst hit areas that witnessed heavy water logging. According to a data released by Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), as many as 57 streets were water logged in the city. Perungudi reported the highest number of flooded streets (24), followed by Tondiarpet with 21 streets.
Also, nine trees had fallen. “We received a total of 104 calls on the helpline numbers. Most of the complaints were attended to within an hour,” said a corporation official. But the residents, who face the trouble almost every year, felt otherwise. “It is the usual story in Chennai. The civic body constructs storm water drains during the rest of the year and when the rains begin in monsoon, the city finds itself under water within an hour or so of the downpour.
The city corporation must first work on repairing the existing drains,” said R Senthil, a Washermenpet resident. Social media was abuzz with videos of waterlogged streets of the city.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) put out a tweet early in the morning saying, “As per latest observations, intense convective clouds present over Chennai and adjoining areas of Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts have the potential to cause heavy rainfall during the next three hours (till 9 am).
The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Chennai, also started giving out advisories starting from 5 am for the heavy rainfall forecasted. The rains began at 3 am and continued till 9 am. The day-time temperatures significantly fell, with the station at Nungambakkam recording 26.3 deg celsius (4.1 deg below normal), and Meenambakkam recording 26.5 deg celsius (3.9 deg below normal).
S Balachandran, Deputy Director General of Meteorology, said, “Chennai would witness light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorms on Friday. The skies would generally be cloudy with maximum and minimum temperatures hovering around 30 and 25 deg celsius respectively.” The rainfall is caused due to a cyclonic circulation over southwest Bay of Bengal off north Tamil Nadu coast.
Weather blogger Pradeep John said this was the highest amount of rainfall received by the city in 24 hours since November 2017. He also noted that the quantum of rain in the current onset of spell would reduce from Friday. Greater Chennai Corporation pitched in announcing emergency helpline numbers. In case of emergencies, one can reach out to: 044 2538 4530, 044 2538 4540, 1913.
As per the official data released by the Regional Meteorological Centre here, several other stations in and around Chennai have registered rainfall in excess of 10 cm. Anna University has received 14 cm, Nungambakkam 13 cm, Red Hills 13 cm, Ambattur 9 cm, Alandur 8 cm, Sholinganallur 8 cm, Ennore 7 cm, Hindustan University 7 cm, Menambakkam 6 cm, Satyabama University 6 cm and Perambur 6 cm.
Cops to help with rain relief
Chennai: City Police commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal on Thursday deputed personnel of State Disaster Response Force for rescue works. Over 300 personnel attached with the Armed Reserve (AR) were given special training by TN Commando Force on rescue work. Aggarwal inspected arrangements and provided inflated rescue boats, life jackets and protective equipment to them. Of 10 teams comprising 100 men, eight have been deputed to four police zones in the city while the remaining two have been kept on standby with AR, Unit.