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Chennai rains

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Are you aware there was a very big Long lake connecting Chetput, Nungambakkam, Teynampet & Saidapet way back in 1909...Now it is completely vanished without any trail...

The precursor to the Kazhagams, the Justice party was the villain which started the destruction for developing T.Nagar... Loyola College too was snatched from the water bodies...The last nail on the coffin was laid in 1974 when DMK constructed Valluvar Kottam in Nungambakkam

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This from an excellent article on this subject

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.in/2015/12/chennai-floods-have-vanished-water.html
 
How a group of techies developed a spreadsheet to track the various requests during the days of deluge! Keep it up Chennai!

The inside story on how 200 volunteers banded together to lend a helping hand in a drowning city


On 1 December, nature decided to drop 30cm of rain in a 24-hour period over Chennai. It was the heaviest downpour Chennai experienced in a century, and the city and its people were haplessly unprepared for the record deluge.

I live close to a suburb that has the Tamil word for lake (Eri) in its name, so flooding is not uncommon because water tends to have this terribly annoying habit of nodding its head to gravity at every chance it gets.

Yet, the story of the latest flood is not a simple linear narrative of callous government officials, poor urban planning and marvellous self-organizing social media-driven help networks. As with most things in India, it’s complicated.

In September, the local folks in the Public Works Department decided to do something uncommon. Their job. They desilted every storm drain, elevated every street and, amazingly enough, collaborated with another government department, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.

Almost every junction box was raised to keep it above water level in case of floods. These were model local government employees, that kind that most people in India assume do not exist.

On 30 November, when that famous unending shower began, I was, as I usually am, in an airport. On my way back from the Chennai airport after having landed quite turbulently on runway No. 2, which in 24 hours time would be inundated by the Adyar river over which it was built, I asked my Ola cab driver how long it had been raining.

Since the morning, he said with great annoyance. Although, more than the rain, he seemed more irritated by the fact that there was no surge pricing in effect despite the shortage of cabs at the airport. This lack of real-time insight is quite relevant to our story, but more on that later.

I reached home to find knee-deep water levels just threatening to enter the house but, crucially, functioning power and broadband Internet. A less fortunate neighbour already had knee-deep water in his ground floor, so he took his family and moved to a relative’s place in an apartment nearby. Then we lost power.

But this was perhaps the best possible experience one could have had as a ground-floor resident in Chennai on 1 December. If one lived in the suburbs abutting the Adyar or Cooum rivers or in the suburbs that used to be lakes before greedy real estate developers (and greedier citizens like us) turned them into urban jungles, it was likely a nightmare.

Water levels in areas like Jafferkhanpet and Ekkaduthaangal rose to 6 feet in a very short span of time. Six feet of water on the ground floor essentially means that you have lost pretty much everything in it. Furniture, electronics and even cars. Almost all families in these areas quickly moved up to the first floor, and in places like Mudichur, there was ankle-deep water on the first floor! Houses without first floors meant that entire families were stranded on roof tops and terraces.

Power of open source, open data


But on the night of 1 December, the world outside Chennai had only two sources of information about the city, and it wasn’t TV, radio or any public warning system. It was people sending frantic SOS messages over SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter. The second source was non-resident Indians and people not in Chennai who had folks in Chennai they couldn’t reach. By late evening, a lot of mobile towers had run out of inverter battery power and phones desperately trying for that one bar of signal drained themselves pretty quickly.

So, complete radio silence from someone you know, it turns out, is information too, albeit a dangerous double-edged sword. So, that was when the deluge of rescue requests started hitting social media, and Sowmya Rao, a New Delhi-based lawyer with Chennai roots, decided to do something about it.

In a few hours, there were practically thousands of “stranded family in Velachery, need rescue”, “1,000 people in Jafferkhanpet about to drown in 8 feet of water, need rescue right away” posts started surfacing. And since the flooding was quite asymmetrical, there were many from less flooded parts of the city who quickly started responding to these rescue requests as local aid volunteers.

With help from a bunch of techies in New York and Bengaluru, Rao quickly put together a Google Docs spreadsheet that consolidated all these rescue requests and also contact details of volunteers who were willing to help. This seemed like a sensible thing to do because there was absolutely no guarantee that the person who posted the rescue request would somehow automatically see a relevant local volunteer willing to help. So, the idea of centralizing these requests and offers made sense.

But pretty soon, there were hundreds trying to edit that sheet and it was getting out of hand, which is when Karthik Balakrishnan from Bengaluru put together a simple search interface and a submission form in front of the spreadsheet and hosted the whole thing on chennairains.org. And all of this happened within a matter of a few hours.

Soon, there were other kinds of requests as the next day rolled around and in addition to rescue, there were requests for water, food and medical support. The number of volunteers on the site was now up to about 25 and it was nearly evenly split between people in India and those abroad.

Changes made to the website were tracked and managed using GitHub and there was even a smooth IT style offshore-onsite handover every 12 hours that just emerged out of nowhere.

And this is really the power of open data and open source. The idea that someone who was making 500 food packets for people in need can do so without having to nail down ahead of time who needed the food. All they had to do was make that information public and it could be matched up with an actual need somewhere.

Uber for aid


And the fact that an entire functional search interface powered by a shared spreadsheet behind the scenes cloud be hacked together overnight using open source components like Twitter’s Bootstrap is something unique to our times.

It was also absolutely fascinating to watch these groups self-assemble. At its best, the site felt like an Uber for aid. Those who needed aid could add their request and those who could offer it could be matched and dispatched. And all of this could be coordinated largely by people not even in Chennai!

One set of techies mapped incoming requests onto Google Maps, which gave us a better sense of where the hotspots were—Jafferkhanpet, Ashok Nagar, West Mambalam, Srinagar Colony—and so on. It was also very easy to try out new processes and dump them if they didn’t work. We tried assigning people to specific areas, but after a couple of days, we realized that some of the areas were largely back to normal, so it didn’t make sense anymore.

There were just so many high-five moments. An elderly man in West Mambalam who needed oxygen cylinders managed to get them on time thanks to an NRI finding a source for them on our site. A mortuary van was arranged for someone who had passed away while the area was still flooded. A source for 200 blankets was matched with a colony of retired policemen and medicines were directed to an orphanage that was hosting an entire nearby colony that was washed away by the Cooum river.

But about 48 hours in, we ran into problems. We had, by now, divided ourselves into three teams. Social Media Trawlers, who would monitor the @chennairainsorg Twitter handle and Facebook page, specific hashtags we had popularized (like #chennairains) and make those entries into our master spreadsheet; on-the-ground volunteers who were covering specific suburbs in Chennai; and operations folks who would take these aid requests, find the closest on-the-ground volunteer and coordinate with them.

The first problem was social media noise. Well-meaning slacktivists who wanted to help but couldn’t be bothered with exercising anything more than hitting the RT or share button kept re-sharing the same old aid requests. An example—“An old-age home on ECR has 60 starving old people who need food!! Right now!! Urgent”. Problem was, the home was quite well served by two local aid agencies from the moment the flood hit.

Another example—“Pregnant lady in Mudichur in chest-deep water with escaped crocodiles nearby!!”. The sheer human interest in a nine-month pregnant lady made the story grow with every RT, share and forward.

Except, the army had already airlifted her to safety on day one and she had given birth quite normally, but that didn’t stop a lot of people from wanting to still play a part in rescuing her by the cunning use of a smartphone, thumb and forefinger. Despite the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust reassuring everyone that absolutely none of their reptiles had escaped, they had, nonetheless swum their way into WhatsApp forwards.

Verification army

So, the very first real-time reorganization we were forced to do was to put in place a verification army. It was a group of outstation folks (since they had power, landline telephones and a complete lack of knee-deep water in their homes) who would call the numbers being shared on social media to verify if the problem or need actually still existed.

We made a call to the old-age home. The exasperated lady there said (and I paraphrase)—“We are getting food from two aid agencies. Do you have anything else to offer? Like gobi manchurian?”

And this was indicative of a larger problem. Social media was amplifying aid requests from a small part of the city. The wealthier, social media-savvy side. There were several parts, particularly in north Chennai that were in scarily bad shape and had no one tweeting or Facebooking on their behalf. Social media, we realized, was a middle-class-centric echo chamber.

The second problem was NRIs. Since my phone number was listed as one of the on-the-ground volunteers taking care of Anna Nagar, I (and several others on the volunteer list) received, on an average about 20 phone calls at night from people in the US, UK and Australia.

There are parts of Chennai, like West Mambalam and Ashok Nagar, which have a disproportionately large number of old folks whose children live abroad, and the moment they realized that there was only one tick on their WhatsApp messages to them, they hit the panic button and started calling every number they knew in Chennai, and stressed an already flaky mobile network.

A deeper problem

This was my favourite—A lady from Phoenix, Arizona, called me and said: “My parents are in 12th avenue, Ashok Nagar (which was under 6 feet of water and only the army had access till almost Saturday), so can you patch me through to the government rescue officer in charge of 12th avenue?” I almost wanted to ask her if she wanted fries with that. But frivolity aside, there is a deeper problem here.

Our collective need for information was actually more than the need for aid. NRIs simply had not heard back from their old folks in West Mambalam and Ashok Nagar for 24 hours, and that was enough for them to assume that escaped crocodiles that had mutated thanks to submerged electrical wiring were on their way to devour their parents.

And together, they were calling any number they could find, often on-the-ground volunteers whose phone battery lives were precious in a city that was largely dark and wasting their time with personal “go check at this address” requests. One of our volunteers even made it through to one of these places in hip-deep water only to find two perfectly fine old folks who asked the chap to go get them some fresh milk if possible.

I can understand how anyone would feel sitting 10,000km away and not knowing what is happening to their folks back at home and the only thing you see on the news media is looped footage of a collapsing bridge and boats being operated on what used to be streets.

They were getting either amplified bad news or no news, so they simply trusted every WhatsApp rumour that came their way. And oh boy, did those rumours keep coming. Lakes were breaching all the time, El Nino was threatening more cyclones and Nasa had shifted focus from Sanskrit to Tamil.

But something heartening from this entire disaster was the sheer scale of volunteering. The rains had barely stopped when literally hundreds of cars with food and other aid had left Bengaluru for Chennai. In many relief camps, there were volunteers competing to supply food, blankets or sleeping mats.

But at the same time, our exercise with crowdsourcing also taught us some hard lessons about the challenges of efficient distribution when there was very unreliable and skewed on-the-ground information. I went to relief camps with blankets and found everyone had two blankets already. At the same time, there were SUVs from Bengaluru roaming the city with chapatis but had no idea where to deliver.

Making a difference


It was also incredible how 200 strangers (yes, that was the final size of the chennairains.org online volunteer team) literally formed an organization where people just took up roles that emerged in real time without any petty infighting.

Every night, we would discuss and decide what the focus was going to be for the next day. No more food aid, we decided on day three when clearly, blankets and medicine became a bigger priority.

The tools we used, such as Twitter, Google Docs and Slack, give a distributed team the unprecedented ability to spontaneously assemble and get things done. And GitHub helps us build new tech without having to invent it from scratch.

The source code behind chennairains is open source and is available for reuse by anyone wanting to run a crowdsourced relief operation the next time this happens anywhere.

But along the way, as we pat ourselves on the back for making a difference, for being that information broker that cut the time between the need for aid and the provider of aid, we realized a few sobering things.

I was at a relief centre in Aminjikarai, delivering milk powder to a camp filled with kids when this lady told me “It’s only when disaster strikes that you middle-class folks pay attention to us. Our lives are not any better when there is no disaster. But now it’s a bonanza with you guys competing to give us stuff.”

All the pedantic analysis of uncontrolled building on marshland areas, climate change and uncoordinated government departments aside, the uncomfortable truth this incredibly huge army of volunteers is likely to conveniently ignore is that the poor in India live in conditions that no civilized society should tolerate.

The slums on the banks of the Cooum have always been mosquito-infested hellholes and now they are mosquito-infested sludge-filled hellholes.

Another realization was the fundamental asymmetry of delivered aid, at least in the first few days. As much as we wanted to direct those cars from Bengaluru to north Chennai, no one had a clue who needed the aid or whether the roads to Kargil Colony in Tiruvottiyur were even motorable.

We also realized that in the entire group of 200, there was not a single public health expert or even someone with experience in relief operations. It was a bunch of really passionate folks figuring things out on their own, and while definitely making a difference, could have done so much more if governments and institutional experts in relief were less sceptical about social media and its ability to connect people.

We had no access to information from the National Disaster Response Force in terms of where they were operating, who they had already rescued and where food packets were being air-dropped.

And this brings me to my point about open data and surge pricing. Self-correcting, efficient relief operations need open data, as much as Ola and Uber need better quality demand and supply data to price their cabs meaningfully.

Krish Ashok is an IT consultant, amateur musician, blogger and perpetrator of Internet memes.



http://mintonsunday.livemint.com/ne...-media-came-to-the-rescue/2.4.2877621276.html
 
The only reason chennai rains attracted attention was middle and higher classes were hurt along with the poor and low income groups.

Those with relatives in other metros and abroad went to social media to gt info besides doing what they could to see their loved ones got relief.

Now only the poor and those who are still roofless are left out.

There re no takers for them.

They have always been the ignored class to be remembered by politicians before elections.

They do not approach facebook or twitter.

The chennai rain cause is dead for the outside world.

What to do with the homeless poor is not the worlds concern.

They can pitch their tents elsewhere or be care of roadside, train platforms which have been their normal shelter homes
 
Chief Secretary shares the real story! This looks very much possible! He could have done this earlier & silenced the critics!!

[h=1]Breached Tanks in Kanchi Sealed Adyar River's Fate[/h]
By Express News Service
Published: 14th December 2015 03:57 AM


CHENNAI: Chief Secretary K Gnanadesikan noted that Chembarambakkam accounts for only 44 per cent of the catchment of the Adyar, which received more water from the breached tanks from Kancheepuram district.
Pointing out that Adyar receives water from other sources like Adanur and Manimangalam tanks, he said even before the release of water from the Chembarambakkam Tank, due to heavy rain of 47 cm that occurred at Mudichur, Tambaram and Thiruneermalai areas of Kancheepuram and the surplus from Vandalur, Urapakkam, Irumbuliyoor,
Guduvancheri, Nandivaram, Somangalam, Mambakkam, Thirumudivakkam, Kundrathur eri, Mannivakkam and Manapakkam canals and about 166 tanks in that area, the Adyar River carried a huge flow downstream of the confluence point of Chembarambakkam Tank surplus.
Further, due to heavy rains, four tanks - Nandhivaram, Urappakkam, Mannivakkam and Adanur tanks - breached on reaching their maximum water level. This, in turn, resulted in heavy inflow into the Adyar River. Chennai city also received a rainfall of more than 30 cm on December 1. The flow in Adyar River reached its full capacity due to the surplus from Chembarambakkam Tank, the inflow from the catchment areas of Adyar within Chennai city and the surplus received from the other tanks. In view of the heavy flow in the Adyar River, the high intensity runoff of local rain in Chennai and adjoining urban areas could not fully drain into the Adyar and hence contributed to the inundation of the city.
Quoting the IMD prediction for December 1, he said the it had said” “Scattered heavy to isolated very heavy rain would occur over coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherrry. Isolated extremely heavy rain would occur over Tiruvallur, Chennai, Kancheepuram districts of Tamil Nadu. Isolated heavy rain may occur over interior Tamil Nadu.”
Therefore, it is clear that the IMD has only given an advisory of isolated extremely heavy rain but has not mentioned anything about 50 cm of rainfall as is being alleged in certain sections of the media. The allegation that NASA has predicted 50 cm of rainfall is totally false. NASA itself has clarified that they do not predict rainfall, the Chief Secretary said.
The flooding on December 1 was caused primarily due to the very high rainfall in November last, the second highest recorded in more than 100 years followed by high intensity of rainfall.



http://www.newindianexpress.com/cit...yar-Rivers-Fate/2015/12/14/article3176412.ece
 
Chief Secretary shares the real story! This looks very much possible! He could have done this earlier & silenced the critics!! ....................

Did the Chief Secretary in this regime, worth his designation and post, have guts to face the repercussion in case if he shares it earlier?
The Chief Secretary has enormous powers in his fiduciary capacity but could not exercise the powers for the reasons best known to him.
Of course, a district Collector at times of crisis and disaster, has vested with the power to take over the functions of all establishments ( including banks) situated in his jurisdiction, under his control and act accordingly.
 
Hats off to Thalaivaa for the magnanimity!

[h=1]Rajinikanth provides shelter to conservancy workers[/h]


  • Staff Reporter

15DECUDH01_Raji_CH_2658617f.jpg


Sanitary workers at Raghavendra Kalyana Mandapam in Kodambakkam —Photo: M. Vedhan

Any guesses who is providing shelter for sanitary workers who have come from other parts of the State to clean the city of Chennai, after the floods destroyed homes?
It is Rajinikanth. The actor has opened up his Raghavendra Kalyana Mandapam to house sanitary workers, brought in from other districts.
He has also ensured that they get basic facilities free of cost. The city has been struggling to dispose of its waste after the flood waters receded, leaving a garbage trail.
The sanitary workers have been brought in from areas such as Namakkal, Karur, Pallipalayam and Tiruppur.
The workers are expected to stay at the Kalyana Mandapam till their work in Chennai is complete.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities...ter-to-conservancy-workers/article7993964.ece
 
Thanks Vganeji for youtube link on chennai rains

Double thanks to brahmanyanji for providing access to me.

The first post giving interesting info. on lakes and rivers around chennai and maps clearly indicating flow of water thru chennai.

I understood what happened to chennai during the recent rains.
 
BSNL has been the savior in providing uninterrupted services to most of the denizens of Chenna during the delugei! Rest were a damp squip and utter failure! BSNL has returned in good measure the trust reposed by Chennaiites! Good show!

How BSNL maintained its services in the city
R. Sujatha
Despite the torrential downpour taking a toll on vital public installations, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) managed to provide landline and net connectivity to a number of its subscribers.
Despite disruption in power supply, BSNL staff managed to operate their exchanges.
On December 2, around 1.25 a.m. power supply to the Haddows Road exchange was suspended.
“Without fuel we could not have run the exchange. Our employees managed to buy diesel to run the generators,” said B. Ramachandran, general manager (central and sales and marketing).
But ensuring continuous supply of diesel was a mammoth task as the exchanges depend on smart fleet card to make payment.
“We have to swipe the cards but we could not use them as internet connectivity was down. We had to ask for credit purchase,” said R. Ravindran, sub-divisional engineer.
N.E. Rajasekaran, who runs the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited’s petrol filling station in Royapuram, knew Mr. Ravindran.
“Since we were not inundated, we could supply fuel. As the exchange could not run its vehicles, we offered to send diesel,” Mr. Rajasekaran said.
The three exchanges in Mambalam, Haddows Road and Anna Road, had bought diesel worth Rs. 5 lakh. “Each hour we use around 250 litres of diesel at the Haddows Road exchange. The Anna Road exchange required around 120 litres of diesel every hour,” Mr. Ravindran explained.
According to Mr. Ramachandran, it was important to keep all their 144 exchanges in the city functional as all government communication was through the service provider. Yet, after a certain point, fuel could not be supplied to the Mambalam exchange and that probably explains why parts of the city remained cut off for several hours.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities...r&utm_medium=Chennai&utm_campaign=WidgetPromo
 
I liked the way konkana sen sharma playing a married tamil brahmin woman Mrs Iyer contrives to pass rahul bose a muslim as her husband Mr Iyer to protect him

from rioters and how a bond develops between them inspite of the different religions to which they belong. This Aparna sen film is a cinematic classic.

Only when we are faced with a life threatening crisis, we realise the futility of clinging to religeous beliefs and empathise with anyone we reach to for comfort , help and

protection. Many such heart warming incidents strangers helping people in distress come to notice during crisis.Chennai should be witnessing many such incidents

Aparna Sen does it again ! அரைச்ச மாவு புளிச்ச தோசை!

Aparna Sen’s new film Arshinagar, based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, carries on where Mr. and Mrs. Iyer left, portraying love across the Hindu-Muslim divide.

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&r...cx9G8tdvpzCxctipQ&sig2=mkh6N-4712DGQFpNnvwaDQ
 
Aparna Sen does it again ! அரைச்ச மாவு புளிச்ச தோசை!

Aparna Sen’s new film Arshinagar, based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, carries on where Mr. and Mrs. Iyer left, portraying love across the Hindu-Muslim divide.
Within Chennai rain no scope for grinding NEW மாவு ; hence resorted to
அரைச்ச மாவு புளிச்ச தோசை!புளிச்ச தோசை!
 
An analysis of flooding...When will the Governments of the day wake up?

[h=1]M Ramachandran: Questions from the Chennai floods[/h]
[h=2]Chennai's new airport terminal was built on the floodplains of the Adyar; pictures of aircraft stranded in water provide proof of what happens when nature's path is tampered with[/h]
M Ramachandran December 19, 2015




What happened in Chennai is a classic reminder that severe damage can be caused when we ignore our rivers and water bodies and forge ahead with unbalanced city development. Earlier, Mumbai and Kolkata also had provided similar warnings when flooding took place, upsetting normal city living. Neglect of the Mithi river in Mumbai, ignoring Tolly's Nullah in Kolkata and now not taking into account the key role of the Adayar, Cooum and Kosathalaiyar rivers traversing the city of Chennai along with the opportunistic exploitation of land along the Buckingham canal - interpreting it as public land - have all upset the character of balanced city living, raised questions about the fundamentals of urban planning and caused untold misery.

Let us focus on Chennai. In addition to the rivers, and the Buckingham canal which intersects the Adayar and Cooum rivers within the city, the city had about 600 water bodies in the 1980s. The City Development Plan prepared in 2005 under the National Urban Renewal Mission referred to as many as 320 tanks and lakes within the city limits. One question that arises in the context of the damage caused by unprecedented rains this time is whether these water bodies have been properly listed, protected, maintained and allowed to play the role they are supposed to.

This is the city where, when the state government proposed to build an industrial park near the Chembarambakkam lake - which originally was a water body for irrigation but is now a reservoir to supply drinking water to the city - people went to court, and subsequently the government had to commit that the land around the lake would remain agricultural. The city's elevated railway has come up along stretches of the Buckingham canal, raising questions as to whether this has blocked culverts and checked the natural flow of drainage. Chennai's new airport terminal was built on the floodplains of the Adyar; pictures of aircraft stranded in water provide proof of what happens when nature's path is tampered with.

Further, if it is true that educational institutions, special economic zones and gated colonies have come up in good numbers in the catchment areas of the rivers and canals, one can imagine how much disruption of the natural drainage route would have resulted. Is there some way of finding out who is responsible for this callous violation of provisions when construction permissions were granted and completion certificates issued?

There are more questions about ignoring what needs to be protected or preserved. Isn't it a fact that the Pallikaranai marshland in the city has become the largest dumping site for solid waste? Hasn't the master plan of 2008 warned that, considering its importance and the drainage system it provides, contiguous swamp area in Pallikaranai should remain conserved, prohibiting development therein?

A CSE study carried out in the mid-1990s showed that most waterways in the city are choked with sludge and waste. It is also mentioned that government's own studies accept that waterways in Chennai convey treated and untreated sewage and garbage together. These waterways, which also function as the city's flood discharge channels, are encroached and built upon as well, affecting their flow. Huge amounts of untreated waste in the rivers lead to sludge formation, clogging the waterways. Will some details emerge as to what extent these factors have contributed to the misery seen in the city when unprecedented rains overtook the city?

There are some interesting contradictions as well, as far as city management is concerned. Chennai is reported to have a very successful rain water harvesting programme. Rain water harvesting structures are mandatory in all buildings. People responded to this requirement positively; they understood the value of water, since the city faces severe water shortages. Rain water harvesting had its impact, as studies showed that the average groundwater level improved; the quality of water improved, with a drop in total dissolved solids; and a very large percentage of city households have this facility installed. This kept aquifers recharged, and so fewer private wells go dry during droughts. Chennai Metro water became eligible for carbon credits by generating sufficient electricity through biogas from sewage sludge. Why did the present damage happen in such a vibrant and alert city?

Every city is supposed to have a well-prepared disaster management plan that is not only supposed to be updated regularly, but, before each season the district administration and the city system are expected to review preparedness to meet any type of extreme situation and alert all those concerned. Was this meticulously done? When water had to be released from the reservoir, was sufficient advance warning given and various possible eventualities assessed so that deaths could have been avoided, damage to property minimised and the food and sanitation requirements of those stranded adequately taken care of? What was the plan for the old, sick and the disabled? Did it work properly?

It is an absolute must that citizens should be given full details on all of these, not only for accountability within the system, but also as a warning for the future.

Did the master plan detail what needs to be done to ensure proper flow of water in situations like this, and how the flood plain should not be encroached upon? Does the city have a well-prepared drainage master plan, and where does it stand with regard to its implementation? If there have been lapses, should they not be revealed, and handled firmly? In the "smart city" vision and plan now prepared, how well has this issue been addressed, so that smartness means the city will not have to face such misery and agony again?


http://www.business-standard.com/ar...s-from-the-chennai-floods-115121900766_1.html
 
It is sad what happened in Chennai. That there has been encroachment and rampant environmental damage was a fact evidenced long before the rains. Why are people raising a hue and cry now? It is because we are like the garden lizard (odakaan), that generally does not move even when the stone thrown at it falls micro-millimetres away from it. It will move only when the stone hits it.

People can ask questions but who is to act? Corruption is a corporate practice; it has its own policy and rules. And it is very strict in protecting its own. Those who cry now do so because they have incurred personal losses. Like the "finance company" losses of the mid 90s this too would be wished away by time.

And the rains will continue to pour...
 
It is sad what happened in Chennai. That there has been encroachment and rampant environmental damage was a fact evidenced long before the rains. Why are people raising a hue and cry now? It is because we are like the garden lizard (odakaan), that generally does not move even when the stone thrown at it falls micro-millimetres away from it. It will move only when the stone hits it.

People can ask questions but who is to act? Corruption is a corporate practice; it has its own policy and rules. And it is very strict in protecting its own. Those who cry now do so because they have incurred personal losses. Like the "finance company" losses of the mid 90s this too would be wished away by time.

And the rains will continue to pour...
True! True! I was shocked at the stupidity of senior IAS & IPS officers who have build palatial bungalows in Manapakkam on the bed of a lake where the flood waters reached the I floor washing away everything on its way
 
30000 persons in Chennai decline to take any flood relief! Amazing! But knowing our politicians they will swindle this too (as is their wont to cast the votes of those absent--- kalla ottu)
/QUOTE]
Almost all upper middle class do not wish to go and stand in line before a third rate politicians i.e. councillors,foregoing all work.
 

I wrote this on 12-12-2005.

The deluge was more in 2015 but most of the facts remain the same. :shocked:

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இந்திரனின் கோரத் தாண்டவம்…..

மாதம் மும்மாரி பொழிந்து செழிக்க
மாதம் பன்னிரெண்டும் வேண்டுதல்கள்!

அருமையான அமிர்தவர்ஷிணி ஆலாபனைகள்;
வருண பகவானுக்குப் பல வித பூஜைகள்!

இந்திரனே மழைத் தேவன் – இது பாகவதம் கூறுவது!
இந்திரனை மறந்து நின்றால் பலன்கள் இனியேது?

தப்பாகப் பூஜித்தது தப்பாகப் போனதோ?
அப்பாவி மக்களைச் “சுனாமி” கொண்டு போனதோ?

நிலை குலைய உலகை உலுக்கிய பயங்கரம் – நீர்
நிலைகளின் தேவனாம் வருணனின் சாகஸமோ?

“எத்தைத் தின்னால் பித்தம் தீரும்?” – என அலைவதுபோல்
கத்தையாய்ப் பணம் செலவழித்துக் கழுதைத் திருமணங்கள்!

“சென்னை பத்து ஆண்டுகளில் பாலைவனமாகும்!”
இன்ன பிற ஆரூடங்கள் தந்துவிடும் சோகம்!

“லாரி” வரவை எதிர்பார்த்து வண்ண வண்ணக் குடங்கள்;
சேரி முதல் பங்களா வரை பரிதவிக்கும் முகங்கள்!

மழை நீர் சேகரிக்க வேண்டிப் பல திட்டங்கள்;
ஏழைக் குடிசையும் கட்டாயம் செய்யக் கோரும் சட்டங்கள்!

சாலைகளில் கிணற்று உறை ஏற்றிச் செல்லும் வண்டிகள் – ஒரு
வேளை கூட ஓய்வில்லாமல் கிணறு தோண்டும் மனிதர்கள்!

நீர்மட்டம் கீழே சென்று “ஜெட் பம்பு” மாற்றங்கள்;
நீரின்றி வாழ்வில்லை – எனவே எங்கும் குழாய்க் கிணறுகள்!

அலுக்காமல் போட்ட பல ஆழ்குழாய்க் கிணறுகளில்
அலுங்காமல் வந்து கலந்தது கரிக்கும் கடல் நீர்!

பிடிவாதமாய் வந்த நீரில் சமைக்கத் தோது இல்லை! – எனவே
“அபிவாதயே” போஸில் நீர்க்குடுவை நிற்காத வீடு இல்லை!

பூமித்தாயைத் துளைத்துத் துளைத்து மனிதன் செய்த மாற்றங்கள்;
பூமித்தாய் அதிர்ந்து அதிர்ந்து பூகம்பச் சீற்றங்கள்!

“மனித குலமே! இது மட்டும் போதாது உனக்கு;
உனது வளமே போகப் போடுகிறேன் இந்திரனிடம் வழக்கு!”

பொறுமைக்கு உவமையாம் பூமித் தாயின் வழக்கு;
உரிமையுடன் போட்டான் இந்திரன் புதுக் கணக்கு!

வருணனை வணங்கித் தன்னை மறந்தது ஜனம்;
தருணம் பார்த்தது தண்டிக்க இந்திரனின் மனம்!

இந்திரனின் கோரத் தாண்டவம் தொடங்குகிறது! – முதலில்
இந்தியாவின் பெருமை மிக்க மும்பை நகரம் மிதக்கிறது!

அன்றாடம் செழிப்பில் திளைப்பவர் முதலாக
‘அன்றாடம் காய்ச்சி’ வரை எல்லோருக்கும் சிரமங்கள்!

அடுத்துத் தாக்கப்படுகிறது பெங்களூர் நகரம்;
அடுக்கு மாடிக் குடியிருப்பும் நீர் சூழ்ந்த துயரம்!

பெரு மழையின் பேயாட்டம் அங்கு யாம் பார்க்கவில்லை;
பெரு நகராம் சென்னையும் தப்பிக்க மார்க்கமில்லை!

“மழையா வேண்டுகிறாய்? கன மழையாய்ப் பொழிகின்றேன்;
‘மழை’ என்ற சொல்லே வெறுப்பேற்ற வைக்கின்றேன்!

கங்கணம் கட்டியதுபோல் இந்திரனின் புறப்பாடு;
எங்ஙனம் கூறுவது? சொற்களில் அடங்காது!

கிணற்று நீர் உயர்ந்து வந்து தரை தொட்டுவிட்டது;
அடுத்து வரும் நீர் ஊறத் தடை போட்டது!

சாலைகளில் நிற்காமல் ஓடும் புது ஆறுகள்;
ஏரிகளில் வழிந்து வரும் நீரும் தரும் ஊறுகள்!

அளவுக்கு மிஞ்சினால் அமிர்தமும் நஞ்சாகும்;
அளவுக்கு மிஞ்சிய திட்டங்களும் பாழாகும்!

அழையா விருந்தாளிபோல் வீட்டில் நுழையும் பிரவாகம்;
மழை நீர் சேகரிப்பால் வந்தது பெரும் சோகம்!

அடுக்கு மாடிக் கட்டிடங்கள் ஏரி மீது கட்டினால்
தடுக்க இயலுமா துயரம் நீர் வீட்டை எட்டினால்!

ஏரிகளும் ஆறுகளும் சரியாக அமைத்திருந்தால்
நீரினால் நன்மையே பெற்றிடுவோம் என்றென்றும்!

தூர் வாரா ஏரிகளில் சரணடைய இடமில்லை;
நீர் மீது பழி போட எவ்வித ஞாயமுமில்லை!

சிங்காரச் சென்னை சீரழிந்து கிடக்கிறது;
பொங்கிவரும் வெள்ளத்தால் நிலை குலைந்து நிற்கிறது!

தென் மாவட்டங்களிலும் மித மிஞ்சிய மழைதான்;
சொல்லொணாத் துயரங்கள் வந்தது நிஜம்தான்!

பயிர்கள் அடித்துச் சென்று பாழாகிப் போனது – மக்கள்
உயிர்கள் காக்க வேண்டி ஓடும்படியானது!

வீடுகளும் பொருட்களும் அடித்துச் சென்ற வேதனை;
பாடுபடும் ஏழைகளுக்கு மேலும் மேலும் சோதனை!

அடுத்த வேளை உணவு கிடைக்குமா என மயக்கம்;
உடுத்த மாற்றுத் துணியில்லாது வந்துவிடும் கலக்கம்!

பயணம் செய்த சில ரயில்களும் பேருந்துகளும் – கடைசிப்
பயணம் கூட்டிச் செல்லும் எமனான துயரம்!

மின்சாரக் கம்பத்திலிருந்து அறுபட்டன “வயர்கள்” – அதுபட்டு
சம்சாரக் கடலிலிருந்து விடுபட்டன உயிர்கள்!

கருணையுள்ளம் கொஞ்சமேனும் இந்திரனே நீ பெற்றிடு;
தருணமிது மழை நிறுத்த, இப்போதே கற்றிடு!

—– ராஜி ராம் —– 12 – 12 – 2005

(குறிப்பு 13 – 12 – 2005 முதல் மழை குறைந்தது!) :rain:
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