Chennai - Rain and its after effects ...Views of Chennaites..

Rain is lashing at Chennai; When Southwest monsoon (From June to September) did not bring enough rain this year, people feared about water shortage in next few months. North East monsoon also got delayed but when it arrived, it arrived big. 

The day before Diwali, Chennai was drenched affecting the Cracker business to a great extent. There was mild rain on Diwali day, leaving kids to celebrate to some extent. 

And now, on November 12th night and 13th morning, it is pouring.

While Pre Diwali rain itself is not being drained out fully, further water over and above now make Chennai flooded at various places. 

Some Chennaites share the after effects of rain in their respective location.

Lakshmi

My office is in Sterling Road and home is in Valasaravakkam

I travelled in MTC bus always & today too went in the bus. It took hell of a time, started at 8 : 45 A.M. from home today (started 15 mins early due to rain ) and reached office at11 A.M. (More than 3 times the normal running time)

Roads were terrible to say the least; water logging everywhere, travelling from one place to another seems like an underwater exploration :P

Situation in West Mambalam

The worst part is no autos are coming in this rain and no cabs are available even in Ola, Uber, TaxiForSure apps (as usual, during rains they are of no use !!!!)

TaxiForSure is issuing discounts without a single vehicle plying. Last Day to get Discounts- 30% aam!!! :P Vehicle eh illa idhukum mella discount vera :P

People waiting for Bus.....

Worst affected areas in my route are : Vadapalani Bus Depot (Looks like a mini beach!!!)

Traffic is hopeless at Vadapalani, Kodambakkam  bridge..

Sterling Road (most low lying area), hence it has become swimming pool near my office and it is impossible to even walk since there are many potholes in the footpath too !!!! I literally stumbled and fell off today :(

Saraswathy

I live at Mugappair East and my office is at Puzhal. I daily commute through my office cab. They pick me at thirumangalam. I take an auto from our place to Thirumangalam daily. Today no auto was ready to come. with great difficulty i managed to convince an auto driver to drop me at Thirumangalam and no surprise he charged double the rate today. 

Thirumangalam junction the most horrible junction. The spot where we are supposed to be picked was immersed in water. we changed our pick spots. In the heavy traffic it was difficult for us to make driver stop anywhere. Driver did a good job managing to pick us in spite. It usually takes twenty minutes from thirumangalam. Today it look an hour for us to reach office. Some pictures taken on the way after sitting safe inside my office cab. 

Ambarish

I have been commuting by two wheeler mostly from Velachery (Home) to Guindy (Office).  Today I tried for cab or an auto. Most of them declined to come, even while booking via app.

Last week, I was lucky to get a cab to and fro to my office during a weekday - which takes ten to fifteen mins extra to reach my place. (Velachery to Guindy)

Normally it takes 15 minutes to reach the office, but today it took 1 hour minimum (you need to take different routes, as you need to avoid roads where water logging is there)

RK Nagar - North Madras...

Roads are Flooded with water - poor drainage as we all know. 

Sewage water mixing with rain water causing many more health infection at the locality especially for people living at the low lying areas.

Water getting into a home at Madipakkam

Trees falling over - some of the trees which seemed to be old more than 20 yrs or so have fallen in some places like NGO colony - Guindy - Adambakkam route causing problems not only to bikers but also to car owners who take their car for commutation.

Walkers - pedestrians suffer a lot due to blind spotted potholes - cracked roads - worst case the cable/EB wiring faults cut down which may be fatal for lives lying on the roads.

Traffic police cannot be blamed as they also try to clear the traffic and divert with best routes to reach destinations. In face helpful to push the cars if they stop mid way which is a good gesture.

Animals - domestic animals are the worst of the lot especially during the rainy season where they don’t get food as well as people burst crackers during the festive seasons which they fall victims leading to accidents and deaths on the road while running away from crackers - running for shades crossing the road dying on the spot. " a sad scene happened when i had to just reach the spot in front of me a kitten was dying " could not save the poor life as the biker who dashed it, hit on the head first - tried my best to take the poor soul to the Blue cross but died on the way. RIP The poor soul. Like this many would be lying dead or wanting help including human.

Worst affected areas in my route:

VELACHERY - TARAMANI LINK ROADS - THOUGH SEEMS TO BE DEVELOPED AREA - STILL BOATS  ARE THE NEED OF THE HOUR

Velachery- Taramani Link Road

NGO colony - very bad and bumpy roads - a busy area with several buses plying everyday

Many abnormal or unfortunate events do occur, especially during winter - due to poor management/maintenance of roads.

Unfortunately Chennai has one of the worst drainage system. Even a small rain for an hour causes huge impact for the commuters.

Last but never the least - some of the Drivers (Govt. Buses/Cabs/Autos/Cars/Bikes) the order of priority are no way good, be it summer or winter - very "LOW TOLERANCE LEVELS". 

Only PRACTICING OF YOGA can save this world after a certain point of time may be from 2020 onwards YOGA Will be made mandatory. 

Christina



My office is in Mount road near Thousand Lights and house is in Kovilambakkam. Whole of this week I commuted by call taxi. The travel during this week took double the time; but today it was very worse and took 3 hours to reach office (Normal time is: 45 minutes)

The roads were pathetic today; Water clogged and the road seems to get lost in the water. The number of holes which all of a sudden appeared due to rain came as a shock.

Buses were almost empty today, but frequency of buses seemed to be very low.

The biggest shocks for me was Thousand Lights, the place where I work, near park hyatt and another big shocker was Kotturpuram. This is supposed to be a posh area, but I saw a different Kotturpuram today

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FURTHER RAIN ALERT

Chennai and other parts of North Tamil Nadu may have to get ready for another downpour this weekend as another weather system is brewing over the Bay of Bengal. A low pressure area lying over southeast Arabian Sea and adjoining Lakshadweep area brought heavy overnight showers on Thursday. S. R. Ramanan, director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, said: “The trough of low pressure that persists over south Andaman sea is likely to intensify into a low pressure area and move towards southeast Bay of Bengal by Saturday. We are monitoring the possibility of the system further intensifying into a depression.”

The Meteorological Department predicts that parts of north Tamil Nadu will get scattered rainfall and it would be more widespread in the southern parts of the State.

Wet weekend likely; While only a few areas may get rain or thundershowers on Friday, Chennai will begin to experience moderate to rather heavy rainfall during weekend.