The northeast monsoon on Thursday, 29 October, brought intense thunderstorms over Chennai, Thiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu and triggered widespread heavy rainfall.
Chennai woke up to a typical monsoon day with overcast skies and intermittent rain. Several areas including Vyasarpadi, Egmore, Palavakkam, Parrys, Kilpauk, MMDA Colony, Thiruvanmiyur were waterlogged.
The Meteorological Department has forecast that the rain over the city and neighbouring districts will continue for next three hours. The thunderstorms began on Wednesday night.
Chennai recorded an average rainfall of 97.27 mm on Thursday. This, according to weather blogger Pradeep John, is the highest rainfall recorded since November 2017.
“150 mm-200 mm rainfall has fallen in Chennai City within few hours, there will be water stagnation for a while in City and after few hours the water will drain out. No city can handle such high intensity downpours,” he tweeted.
An upper air circulation over southwest Bay of Bengal off north Tamil Nadu coast had caused the thunderstorms, the department said. Chennai is expected to experience rainfall for the next few days.
This marks the onset of the northeast monsoon, a phenomenon that brings rainfall over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala during October to December.
Several motorists took to social media to condemn the state government for not desilting the roads and undertaking such pre monsoon-related work to avoid waterlogging.
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) said that the stagnant water is being cleared within two hours but owing to the continuous downpour, the work is getting delayed.
The GCC said that a rain water drain pipe measuring 406 km long had been constructed in Zones 7 (Ambattur), 11 (Kodambakkam) and 12 (Valasaravakkam) to help clear stagnant water, with a financial assistance of Rs 1200 crore from the World Bank. Another 200 km of storm water drains have also been constructed in 412 places in Chennai.
You can contact the Chennai Corporation number for rain-related emergencies at 044- 25384530/25384540/1913.
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