Rescuers utilised boats to reach people stranded in their homes amid widespread flooding in India’s Chennai on Dec 6 after Cyclone Michaung barrelled into the southern coast, leading to extreme downpour and winds that uprooted trees and destructed roads. An estimated 13 people, most of them in the manufacturing hub of Tamil Nadu, have lost their lives in the flooding that was triggered by extreme downpour that preceded the cyclone, which made landfall in Andhra Pradesh state on Dec 5 afternoon.
Rescuers used inflatable rafts and ropes to evacuate people from their abodes in Chennai, a city of more than 6 million people and a major automobile and technology manufacturing hub. Local media revealed pictures of rescue workers wading through waist-deep water and of submerged vehicles. Air force helicopters also dropped food rations to people stranded in flooded abodes. “There are pockets of low-lying regions,” conveyed Greater Chennai Commissioner J. Radhakrishnan. “We are hoping to clear It in sometime definately.”
Taiwan’s Foxconn and Pegatron had stopped Apple iPhone production at their facilities nearby Chennai due to the downpour on Dec 4, sources told Reuters. Foxconn resumed operations on Dec 5. In Andhra Pradesh, which bore the brunt of the cyclone, the destruction was relatively contained, with roads damaged and trees uprooted as big waves crashed into the coast. This week’s floods in Chennai brought back memories of the extensive damage caused by floods in 2015 which was the reason of taking away precious lives of approximately 290 people.