Representative Image (Photo: Justin George)
Deja vu is a loanword from French which implies the feeling as though one has lived through the present situation before. The torrential rains that lashed Chennai and neighbouring districts over the weekend and continued till Tuesday, seemed like a throwback to the 2015 floods when life in the metropolis came to a standstill. The severe cyclonic storm Michaung has exposed chinks in Chennai’s civic infrastructure armour as the day-long rains ended up waterlogging the whole city, with not a dry patch of land in sight.
The worst affected areas included low lying regions like Velachery, which bore the brunt of the deluge, just like it did in 2015. Commuters found vehicles breaking down in the downpour, as floodwaters gushed in and submerged them in the middle of the roads. Five Furlong Road in Guindy was ground zero for the cave in of an arterial stretch, which shocked bystanders. Several subways across the city were shut on account of waterlogging, which cut off access to several neighbourhoods. As many as 12 people were reported to have died in rain-related incidents such as electrocution, as well as the uprooting of trees and the collapse of walls.
In places like Pallikaranai, a certified marshland, which has now made way for hundreds of acres of residential projects, a horror show lay in wait for the citizens. In scenes straight out of a Hollywood disaster flick, passenger vehicles of all sizes were swept away by the deluge as the owners of these cars stood by looking helplessly. Several stretches adjoining OMR including Siruseri, Perumbakkam, Navalur, Sholinganallur witnessed water stagnation, while the airport had also been closed off until Tuesday morning on account of adverse weather and inundation of the runway. There was even an episode of a crocodile being spotted on a highway, which inspired a flurry of memes on social media.
The cyclone was expected to move parallel to the South Andhra coast and cross between Nellore and Machilipatnam on forenoon of December 5, during which it was supposed to make landfall. In the aftermath of any such disaster, in this case, a phenomenon that Chennai deals with every year, it must be asked, what really is going on in the name of flood mitigation in this metropolis? Opposition leaders K Annamalai of the BJP, as well as Edappadi K Palaniswami of the AIADMK did not mince their words when it came to reprimanding the government for its slipshod handling of the flood preparation activities in Chennai.
The duo called attention to the Rs 4,000 cr package that was earmarked by the State’s ruling dispensation on account of flood prevention works. Unfortunately, what dawned on most Chennaiites, who woke up in the morning after the floods, was the realisation that nothing had been learned in the last eight years since the devastating deluge of 2015.
We were still flouting construction norms. Buildings were being sanctioned in flood plains and protected regions like marshlands, with not a soul to raise an objection. The taxpayer’s hard-earned money never really makes it in time to see a fully functional and effective stormwater drain get constructed before the monsoon. Witnessing this failure of leadership is the curse of Chennaiites, who are unable to hold their elected representatives accountable for this elliptical goof-up. Instead, we let it go, and let it flow.