Chennai Floods

Chennai on Wednesday recorded the heaviest-ever rainfall of 29.4 cm and 34.5 cm in the Met office's two observatories here in 24 hours, or more than half the average rainfall for the entire northeast monsoon, smashing the previous high of 26.1 cm in 1901 and pummelling an already stricken city into submission.
Large swathes of Tamil Nadu remained marooned, leaving nearly 200 people dead, with the Met department predicting heavy downpour over the next 48 hours.
The last time a natural calamity struck the state with such vehemence was the 2004 Asian tsunami when the death toll was much higher at nearly 8,000, but the damage and disruption this time is feared to be on a similar scale.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an emergency meeting with senior ministers Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu for an appraisal of the situation, which was followed by a discussion in the Lok Sabha.
The Army , the Navy, the Air Force and the National Disaster Response Force are out on the streets to rescue people from their flooded homes. But, rescue teams faced serious problems in reaching the interiors of Chennai, where most people are stuck in the floods. The entire southern part of the city is disconnected. There is no public transport running there. Two main bridges there have also been closed and water current is too high for our boats to reach there,“ NDRF director-general O P Singh said.
Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said staterun operator BSNL will not charge anything for a week in Chennai. Skymet Weather chief meteorologist Mahesh Palawat attributed to heavy rainfall primarily to the El Nino.
In the Lok Sabha, AIADMK's Venkatesh Babu began the discussion saying four northern districts of Tamil Nadu had witnessed unprecedented rainfall. He blamed the previous DMK regime for encroachments on reservoirs and waterways for worsening the flooding, indicating that the state's famous rivalry would not be subsumed by the disaster.
In the Rajya Sabha, DMK's Kanimozhi said the situation needed united efforts. She, however made a slight slip and said, “Our leader, Dr Kalaignar, has said that the DMK government will wholeheartedly support the...“ At this, AIADMK's V Maitreyan interjected to shout that DMK would not be in office for 10 years.