Cyclone Fengal: Tiruvallur goes silent with waterlogged streets
Pharmacies, grocery stores, and vendors selling vegetables, fruits and bread remained open. All others were closed for business.
A deserted Tiruvallur market
TIRUVALLUR: Cyclone Fengal brought life in Tiruvallur to a standstill on Saturday. Heavy rain with strong winds, power shutdown for hours and water-logged bazaars and streets made residents stay home all day.
Pharmacies, grocery stores, and vendors selling vegetables, fruits and bread remained open. All others were closed for business.
“Vendors stocked their shops as usual but there were very few people buying them. Even a few grocery shops in the market were closed. It felt like a deserted place,” said Suresh, a vegetable vendor in the market. “It was not a productive day in terms of sales. Thankfully, the cold weather prevented the vegetables and fruits from rotting.”
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Due to the downpour that began early morning on Saturday (8 cm of rain in Poondi), even the busiest roads of Tiruvallur fell quiet including Bazaar Street, Kondamapuram Street and Mohamad Ali Street. The railway station seemed more spacious than usual due to fewer passengers. Arrival and departure of trains at the station were both delayed by 15 minutes.
There was a mass power cut in several villages including Ikkadu, Punnapakkam, Ramathandalam, Beemanthoppu, and Ikkaddu Kandigai. “We did not have electricity all day. From morning, when the downpour began until late evening, there was no power. Due to the weather condition, it was dark throughout the day. So, I had to work from home using a candle,” stated Magesh.
Another employee of a private firm lamented over the lack of work-from-home options, and recalled: “I boarded a train at 9:15 am in Tiruvallur station but it departed at 9:35 am only. All trains arrived and departed late from Tiruvallur.”
When contacted, a municipal official told DT Next, waterlogging was lesser this year than the previous year due to “all the precautionary work undertaken in the low-lying areas in. If rainwater has stagnated in more places, adequate action will be taken immediately”.