Chennai rains: Relief, but no respite, PM Modi announces additional Rs 1000-crore aid

Bengaluru: Chennai was forecast to receive another 100-200 mm (4-8 inches) of rain through Sunday, threatening to sink the city deeper after its worst floods in more than a century cut off basic services and hampered rescue efforts. PM Narendra Modi announced an immediate relief of Rs 1,000 crore to Tamil Nadu after an aerial survey and discussions with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

This will be on top of the Rs 940 crore relief the Union government released last week for the state. Chennai saw only slight rains on Thursday but water levels had not receded since Wednesday morning, when a massive release of water from Chembarambakkam reservoir swamped low-lying areas.

At least 269 people have died in the floods, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told Lok Sabha on Thursday. He also said 54 people had died in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and two in Puducherry. “Chennai has become a small island. This is unprecedented,” Singh told Parliament. “We are working very hard to restore normality.” Chennai received 345 mm of rain in 24 hours earlier this week, the highest for a single day in the past 114 years, after mere days of respite from torrential rains that lashed the city earlier.

After auto manufacturers and IT outsourcing firms suspended operations on Wednesday, state-run Chennai Petroleum shut down its 210,000-barrels-per-day oil refinery due to heavy flooding. Assocham has estimated that the floods may cause financial losses of over $2.25 billion. With the defence forces struggling to evacuate thousands of residents stranded in and around Chennai, tech enthusiasts across India are using social media to crowd-source information to supply food, top up mobile phone credits and offer refuge. Volunteers and companies are using online tools such as Google documents and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to organise their own crisis response, with some setting up dedicated online resources, such as Chennairains.org.

For many, the Internet, although mostly weak and intermittent, has become the main source of contact with the outside world. In several areas, people were tethering their mobile phones to make their WiFi and mobile Internet connections accessible to the public.

With more than 3 million people in the city cut off from basic services, authorities were under fire for slow relief and rescue operations. About 1.64 lakh people have been moved to 460 relief camps in Chennai, Cuddalore, Thiruvallur and Kanchipuram, Jayalalithaa said on Thursday. The Army and Navy are working hard to evacuate thousands of people to temples, schools and wedding halls, but thousands more are estimated to be still stranded.