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Heavy rains pound city, districts
Torrential rains threw normal life out of gear in Chennai, various parts of the state and neighbouring Puducherry.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
Heavy rains lashed parts of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, including Chennai, and neighbouring Puducherry, disrupting flight movement and leaving several areas inundated. The picture looks no better for Wednesday, December 2, with the weather office forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall for Tamil Nadu, especially over the northern districts of Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram.
It also forecast heavy rains for Puducherry. “The trough of low pressure now lies over Southwest Bay (adjoining Sri Lanka), off Tamil Nadu,” officials at the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) said.
Under its influence, widespread rains are expected across the state on Wednesday, with the possibility of “scattered heavy to isolated very heavy rainfall over coastal districts,” they said. The weather office forecast “isolated extremely heavy rainfall” for Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur, which have already been facing the brunt of the northeast monsoon since last month. A holiday was declared on Tuesday for educational institutions in these districts, that have been experiencing heavy downpour, officials said.
In Chennai, office-goers found it tough to make it to their workplaces on time, with the incessant rains resulting in water-logging in several areas. Many of them opted to travel by state government buses, suburban train services and Metro Rail. Most roads were left in a damaged state, with motorists finding it hard to negotiate potholes.
At Adyar, a part of the road near the Madhya Kailash intersection had caved in on Monday, prompting authorities to redirect traffic on the busy stretch. Flight operations also took a hit due to the inclement weather. Airport officials said one flight, which left Colombo this morning, returned. Puducherry, which was pounded by rains since Monday night, recorded 15.2 cm rain in the last 24 hours, disrupting normal life. A holiday was declared for educational institutions. Normal life was thrown out of gear in Puducherry which witnessed heavy rains last night, officials said. This is the first time that heavy rains battered the Union Territory after around a decade.
Offices shut shop early for employees’ safety
With incessant rains battering the city, most organisations called it a day by noon on December 1, to ensure that their employees reached home safely, as most roads were flooded and traffic came to a standstill.
Parvathi M, a software engineer at an IT company in Sholinganallur, says the organisation asked the employees to leave half day, as long stretches of OMR were flooded. “The situation in OMR was quite bad as even the arterial roads were flooded. Getting back home was quite a nightmare as many roads were closed off and the water was getting into the auto. I was happy to reach home safe,” she adds. Krishna Prasad, another employee at an IT firm, says, “The office was flooded, so we were asked to leave by noon. For those employees who came from far away areas, they were also given an option to stay in the office guesthouse.”
S Aravind, tax manager for a leading IT company, points out that employee safety comes first. “Though our office was not flooded, most of the roads in the city were. The organisation closed by noon, so that employees could get home safely,” he concludes.
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