After three days of incessant rain in the southern Indian city of Chennai, monsoon showers subsided on Dec. 4. The water level in some flooded areas has already started to recede.
Over the last few hours, many residents of the city have taken to Twitter—which was used for coordinating rescue operations in Chennai over the last few days—to share updates.
Even as things look up for now, weather forecasters have said that rains may return to haunt Tamil Nadu over the next 24 hours. “South coastal Tamil Nadu will receive moderate to heavy showers during the next 24 hours. Meanwhile after a brief respite, Chennai will once again witness increase in rain from Saturday evening. However, intensity of rains will be restricted to light showers with few moderate spells only,” private weather forecaster, Skymet Weather, has predicted.
The state of Tamil Nadu witnessed higher-than-anticipated rains throughout November. Toward the end of the month, the drainage system in the state’s capital stopped coping—Chennai has been partially submerged since Dec. 1. Rain-related incidents have claimed around 300 lives statewide, and 1.1 million people have been evacuated due to the rain, IBNLive reported.
On Dec. 4, at least 18 people died at a hospital in Chennai. While the cause of the deaths has not been ascertained yet, relatives of the deceased claim that the hospital’s critical care systems failed due to power disruptions caused by heavy flooding in the premises over the last few days, The Hindu newspaper reported.
Authorities are hoping to partially restart stalled services at the Chennai airport from 6 am tomorrow, Dec. 5, the Airports Authority of India Chairman R.K. Srivastava told the Press Trust of India.