So I watched with my jaw dropping the aerial pictures sent to us by a colleague in Chennai who was on the chopper with the army. I watched as food packets plunged through the air to people packed onto roof tops with water everywhere around them. What I also saw was the Adyar river without an inch of space around it to move or breathe. I saw a city that has just grown like a group of mushrooms but with far less intelligence.
Let me make a huge call out to the residents of my city. I watched as they showed unbelievable resilience as they battled power cuts, communication failures, lack of food, incessant rain, rising flood waters and lost homes. I salute a city that came forward and helped its own with countless acts of the kindness of strangers. I especially want to make special note of the true mark of responsible citizenship: there have been no reports of looting or break-ins or anything like that. When Hurricane Katrina pounded new Orleans, crime levels went through the roof. Not in Chennai where people have opened their homes, devoted their time to distributing relief material around, helped rescue people while battling their own problems.
34 cm of rain in one day is a record by any standards. It is pretty much more rain in one day than most countries get in a year. That is a challenge for any administration no doubt. Rain like that will also cause some damage - again, no arguments there - but the scale of the damage can be squarely blamed on shocking urban planning. Full story...
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Let me make a huge call out to the residents of my city. I watched as they showed unbelievable resilience as they battled power cuts, communication failures, lack of food, incessant rain, rising flood waters and lost homes. I salute a city that came forward and helped its own with countless acts of the kindness of strangers. I especially want to make special note of the true mark of responsible citizenship: there have been no reports of looting or break-ins or anything like that. When Hurricane Katrina pounded new Orleans, crime levels went through the roof. Not in Chennai where people have opened their homes, devoted their time to distributing relief material around, helped rescue people while battling their own problems.
34 cm of rain in one day is a record by any standards. It is pretty much more rain in one day than most countries get in a year. That is a challenge for any administration no doubt. Rain like that will also cause some damage - again, no arguments there - but the scale of the damage can be squarely blamed on shocking urban planning. Full story...
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- Has Chennai become Venice!!!
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