[While officials blamed the
unusually heavy rainfall for the disaster, critics of the local government said
the city was frequently hit with heavy rains this time of year and cited unchecked
and ill-advised development as
contributing greatly to the death and destruction. The airport, for one
example, was built in recent years on what they said was a flood plain of the Adyar River
 |
Flood-ravaged
|
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi traveled to
Chennai to assess the flooding on Thursday, as the death toll reached 269 in
the surrounding state of Tamil Nadu, said the home minister, Rajnath Singh, in
an address to Parliament.
Heavy rains began in Tamil Nadu on Nov. 12, said Laxman Singh
Rathore, the director general of India’s
Meteorological Department, part of a monsoon season that lasts in the region
until late December. Nearly 14 inches of rain fell in Chennai on Wednesday, he
added.
Schools
and the airport have been closed, and the state government advised private
companies in Chennai and two other districts to declare a holiday on Thursday
and Friday, the Press Trust of India reported.
“The rains have broken the past 100 years’
record, and this has created an unprecedented emergency situation in Chennai,”
Mr. Singh said.
While
officials blamed the unusually heavy rainfall for the disaster, critics of the
local government said the city was frequently hit with heavy rains this time of
year and cited unchecked
and ill-advised development as
contributing greatly to the death and destruction. The airport, for one
example, was built in recent years on what they said was a flood plain of the Adyar River
Sunita Narain, the director general of the Center for Science
and Environment based in Delhi, said in a statement on Thursday that “urban
sprawls,” including Chennai, too often neglected bodies of water in their
development, and that the lakes in and around Chennai had a natural channel to
drain floods.
“But we have built over many of
these water bodies, blocking the smooth flow of water,” she said in the
statement. “We have forgotten the art of drainage. We only see land for
buildings, not for water.”
The government mobilized 30
teams of the National Disaster Response Force, many of whom traveled the city’s
streets in boats; seven columns of its army; and 12 navy ships in Chennai and
other affected areas in the region, Mr. Singh said. Rescue operations were
hampered by flooding and the resulting damage to roads in the area.
The National Disaster Response Force rescued about 3,000 people
from their homes in Chennai on Wednesday, said S. P. Selvan, the deputy
inspector general in southern India.
Mr. Rathore said that the cumulative effects of the rains in
Chennai and its surrounding areas since Nov. 12 were in all likelihood the
heaviest in a century, though deluges this time of year are the norm.
Comparably heavy rains fell around this time in 1997 and 1976,
he said.
The rains moved from Chennai to
more southern districts on Thursday, and heavy rains would continue to fall for
the next two days, he said.
