On December 1, 2015, in just a span of 12 hours, breaking 272 mm of rainfall was recorded in Chennai. The city’s normal rainfall for December stands at 191 mm. In addition, Chennai has also broken over a 100-year-old 24 hour rainfall record. Previously, on December 10, 1901, Chennai had recorded 261.6 mm rainfall in a span of 24 hours. Chennai has also broken monthly rainfall record of December 1910.
One of the large city in India, Chennai was underwater due to heavy rain overflow into the banks of the river, flooding residential areas and other parts of Chennai. All highways to the city, railway stations, airports, schools, hospitals, factories and other facilities were closed. Most of mobile telephone networks in Chennai were also downed. The majority of those affected were working-class families and the poor. The cost of basic items such as milk, vegetables and drinking water has skyrocketed. Many villages were submerged by the flood waters and low lying areas turned into huge lakes. Apart from destroying crops, cattle, houses and all other things coming in its way, flood took away the upper fertile crust of land. The marooned people had to be evacuated to higher and safer places. Those who cannot be transported had to be supplied with food etc through air dropping. On the positive side, several individuals opened up their residences to strangers caught in the floods and provided food and shelter. Without waiting for the official agencies, many individuals started offering food, blankets and more to the ones affected. Those who could access to the internet posted messages on social media sites such as Face book and Twitter about stranded people so that help could reach them. Other than it, Government and Military supports from neighbouring countries, cities, international organisations assisted a lot by sending food and clothes to the city.
However, all the staff members of PMI and their families were safe. Since the area where our office is located was severely flooded and we had to keep the office closed for almost a week. One of our staff evacuated to school for 2 days. Since our office is on the first floor, we were not effected in any other way. We got continuous support from our management and also from colleagues. We would like to thank our management and colleagues for their moral supports.
Overall, the Chennai flooding was the eighth-most expensive natural disaster of 2015.
Ms. Gladys Santhosh