Anger surges over government response to floods in Chennai, India

CHENNAI, India — When Arun Rengasamy’s phone rang at 10 a.m. on Dec. 2, he expected a routine call from his mother, Meena Rengasamy, who lives in the southern Indian city of Chennai, more than 800 miles from the bustling metropolis of Mumbai, where he works as a television news producer. 

But the call was anything but ordinary. “My mother said she was stuck on the terrace of our home,” he said. “Water had risen to over 10 feet, and they were forced upstairs. She said she could hear neighbors screaming for help.”

Thirty-six hours later, his younger brother, his mother and her husband, along with others stranded in the area, were rescued by boats operated by the Indian army. They are now staying in army quarters atop St. Thomas Mount, a nearby hill. 

Chennai is no stranger to floods this time of the year, but the sheer scale and frequency of the 2015 flooding has left the city’s 10 million residents distraught. Nearly 40 inches of rain fell in November alone — more than double the average for this time of year, according to the country’s meteorological department. The latest deluge, which began on Dec. 2., was the worst of three rainstorms that have hit since November. In some parts of the city, the floodwaters were 10 feet deep. Homes and buildings were washed off their foundations. As of Friday, at least 245 people have been confirmed killed as a result of the disaster, according to the Tamil Nadu state government. (Other reports have placed the death toll higher).

The elderly in particular suffered in the deluge. Bablu Ramamurthy, 80, was caught unprepared and stood petrified in her ground-floor apartment in the Ashok Nagar neighborhood as water reached her waist. Her bed was afloat as strangers helped her out and took her to a friend’s house. “I have never seen such a flood in my entire life,” she said. “I do not know how I will replace all my things.”

Electricity has been suspended to waterlogged areas of the city since Tuesday evening in order to prevent electrocution. Cellphone connectivity has been disrupted, meaning that stranded residents are often unable to communicate their situation to rescue teams. On Friday roads were just beginning to become passable again, with rescue workers taking essentials such as food, clean drinking water, milk and medicines to flood-affected areas.

On Nov. 24, the Indian government announced that it would provide a relief package of roughly $140 million to the flood-hit city, then roughly doubled that figure this week. So far, 1.15 million people have been evacuated from low-lying areas and 350,000 rescued and lodged in 5,000 temporary relief camps that have been set up across the city. 

Public anger has surged over the state government’s alleged failure to warn residents of the likelihood of flooding and slow response after torrential rain began to fall.

“Where was the government when we were stranded?” asked Vivek Balaji, a resident of West Mambalam, a neighborhood in southern Chennai. “Civilians did all the work. No civic authorities or police came to help for two days. No one informed us about the likelihood of flooding either.”

But in a press conference Friday, K. Gnanadesikan, the chief secretary of the state government, praised the response and declined to comment on specific charges. “The Tamil Nadu government is taking rescue and relief efforts on a war footing,” he said. “It is a matter of justifiable pride that this government has addressed a disaster of this magnitude so successfully.”

More than 1,000 personnel with the National Disaster Rescue Force, 850 army personnel and 250 navy officers are leading rescue and relief efforts in the city. Another 1,000 rescue force workers and more than 850 additional army officers are expected to join the operations in the next few days. 

Meena Rengasamy and thousands of others in the relief camps can only pray that the worst is behind them. With more rainfall predicted over the next two days, the city’s residents are a tense lot, waiting nervously for normal life to be restored.