CHENNAI: For the residents of Mudichur in Chennai, Cyclone Michaung has brought back the memories of 2015 floods. Mudichur and neighbouring areas bore the brunt in 2015 and this time also the situation is no different. With neck-deep water on roads, thousands of residents in Mudichur, Mannivakkam, Bharathi Nagar and Krishna Nagar have been trapped inside their houses without food, milk, or drinking water since Monday. On Tuesday morning, disaster management teams from various districts with the support of volunteers and various political parties, rescued the residents on boats.
Recalling the haunting memories of December 2015, V Sivakumar, a resident of Bharathi Nagar, near Mudichur, told TNIE, “Till Monday evening, there was no problem. During the night hours, the situation turned worse as the area got inundated. The residents, including children, pregnant women, and elderly persons, had to live in fear until the next morning. During the night hours, no official visited the area.”
Around 1 lakh residents in Mudichur and surrounding areas alone have been evacuated by boats on Tuesday morning. But, as the shelters were insufficient, most of the residents went out of their areas and started finding safe places along with their children”
Another resident, V Sripal of Mudichur, said, “We thought the situation would not be as worse as the one in 2015. We thought the officials would have initiated some flood-mitigation works. But they did nothing.”
As the roads were inundated, the road users were diverted to Perungalathur, GST Road, and other alternative areas.
Since Narayanapuram lake near Pallikaranai overflowed, the main road connecting Velachery to Tambaram was inundated. All bus services were cancelled. The residents were rescued using boats by the disaster management teams.
Like Perumbakkam, Thambi Reddy Colony in Madambakkam, Vijayanagaram, Vengaivasal, Santhosapuram, and other parts of South Chennai have been severely affected. A senior official attributes the inundation to overflowing small waterbodies. Efforts are on to drain water out from the affected areas.