Last week Chennai city received record rains (five-and-a-half times more than normal) for the month of November. Since the cyclone “Vardah” in 2016 and the massive floods in 2015, we, the residents were rightfully scared and held our breath for the worst. Thankfully, the India Meteorological Department had given an accurate forecast about the intensity of the rains a few days in advance. The roads were flooded, subways below the railway lines were submerged, power was unavailable in many parts of the city, but things were restored quickly after the rains stopped.
Below is a chronological list of my social media postings:
7th Nov 2021:
Non-stop rains for over 12 hours from yesterday evening in Chennai. So it feels customary to post a photo of ChennaiRains. Every resident is thinking only of the 2015 floods. Hope the water management authorities & Hon’ble CM are proactive unlike then.
Chennai Rains – 7th Nov 2021
9th Nov 2021:
With heavy to severe #rains forecasted to pour in Chennai for the next two days, fresh with 2015 floods memory, when water from nearby lakes flooded the city (we got up to 3 feet on the ground floor of our house, damaging my car, destroying many of the items & appliances we had in the lower levels), I put aside some emergency food & cooking kit in the first floor of my house – gas cylinder and gas stove to come up at the last hour. I hope and pray we don’t have any floods this time – the poor and those living on run-down accommodations can’t take the brunt. Already the city has suffered heavy rains for the last few days & floods in low-lying areas.
Eatables, plates, utensils, spoons, rice cooker, snacks, noodles, groceries & drinking water are kept for emergency purposes on the first floor of our house.
In the evening today (9th Nov 2021, Tuesday), I went grocery shopping in Pondy Bazaar, I found the roads (Ashok Nagar to Mylapore) to be mostly dry as we had relief from rains from the morning.
Today the city got some relief from rains after three days of the heavy pour, seen above is Pondy Bazaar shopping nearly bone dry in the evening on 9th Nov 2021.
11th Nov 2021:
Till now (11th Nov 2021, Thursday afternoon) our street is doing okay. After a few more hours of intense rain, water will breach our gates and enter our compound. Hope it won’t raise further to come inside the house. Electricity was available till morning (Thursday 6 AM), it has been turned OFF throughout our area for public safety.
Praying for the depression to cross into the lands soon (expected by late evening today) and the rains slow/cease after that.
Chennai Rains – 11th Nov 2021
Thursday 6:50 PM: The depression is crossing the land. In the afternoon the downpours slowed, then heavy winds and now some relief for the last few hours. No power from the morning in our area. Hope the rains don’t restart & we get electricity restored soon.
11th Nov 2021, the depression is crossing over the land
Tamil Nadu state’s Power Minister Thiru Senthil Balaji has given interesting data – Chennai city has about 44 Lakhs Electricity connections in total. Out of this, he says about 61,000 connections (households) are out of power due to the heavy rains. If this is true, it is impressive. In my case, there is no power in our area since morning today (that’s over 15 hours now on Thursday).
12th Nov 2021:
It is good to have you back, Chennai always loves you, please don’t leave us. The picture was taken on Friday at 11 AM. After 24 hours, the electricity is back as well.
#lostandfound #sunshine #goodbye #chennairains
Disclaimer: After I posted the last message about Chennai loving the sun, I realised there is an unintended pun in the first sentence. Clearly, I didn’t intend any political preference. [Hint: சூரியன் & உதயசூரியன்]
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