Relentless downpour over Chennai and its neighbourhood may continue on Wednesday under the influence of depression that lies over southwest Bay of Bengal.
A torrential rain accompanied by lightning and thunder lashed several parts of the city since early hours of Tuesday with the depression lying 240 km southeast of Chennai. Chembarambakkam received the highest volume of rainfall of 11 cm, Guindy registered 9 cm and both Meenambakkam and Nungambakkam received 7 cm till 8.30 a.m. on Tuesday.
The downpour continued through the day too throwing traffic out of gear in arterial roads such as Arcot Road, Mount Poonamallee High Road, GST Road and Jawaharlal Nehru Salai. While Nungambakkam registered 6.7 cm of rainfall, Meenambakkam received 7.1 cm till 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday. Other places like Chembarambakkam and Avadi too experienced a rainfall of 5 cm and 4 cm respectively.
The city that was sizzling under blistering heat until a day ago enjoyed pleasant weather as the day temperature dropped to 27.8 degree Celsius. As Chennai received its first heavy showers for the year, fear about the possibility of another impending flood gripped those residents who had suffered on account of the deluge last year.
Savitha Sekar, a resident of Chinmaya Nagar, said, “Every time the rain gets heavy I start imagining my house getting flooded. I’m not prepared to go through something similar so soon.”
Myriad of tweets
In Twitter too, anxious residents started posting tweets. Dr. Anonymous @blah_blah_mastr tweeted: “Heavy rains in Chennai reminds me of the December floods. Worried as there is only a day left in between before we leave for Ooty.”
Another resident @priyanka_optom posted: “Reminds me of those days. Dark clouds, no electricity, continuous pouring.”
Also, there were a series of tweets wherein residents fear about the storage level at Chembarambakkam reservoir. @St_Hill posted: “When it rains, Chennai’s 1st reaction used to be ‘Do I need an umbrella?’ Now it is ‘What is the level in Chembarambakkam?’”
Rainfall up to 12 cm
Meanwhile, S. Balachandran, Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, said many places in Tamil Nadu were likely to have rains on Wednesday too. However, rain bands would concentrate over north coastal Tamil Nadu particularly Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram on Wednesday, bringing in heavy rainfall up to 12 cm. The system was expected to move northwards along North Tamil Nadu and south Andhra Pradesh coast and intensify into deep depression by Thursday, he added.
“We have warned fishermen not to venture into sea as it would be rough, and squally weather will prevail with wind blowing up to 70 km per hour,” he said.
Pointing out that such a heavy downpour was uncharacteristic of May, officials noted that Chennai experienced 11 cm of rainfall on May 20 when cyclone Laila hit the coast.
(Additional reporting by Sunitha Sekar)
