Sheets of driving rain on Tuesday marooned a city already besieged by a 100-year record 1,19.73cm rainfall in November. As the city approaches another high for a 24-hour period of rainfall in a decade and appears set to demolish a close to 40-year record of 27.3cm on 27 October 2005, meteorology experts said the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon could be partly responsible for the extreme climatic conditions. The maximum rainfall in a single day was in 1976 when the city received 45cm of rain in 24 hours.

Non-stop torrential rains since Monday night pounded several parts of Chennai and its suburbs and Puducherry, triggering a deluge completely disrupting normal life as the army was deployed on Tuesday in two areas to undertake rescue on a war footing.

All flight operations at Chennai airport were suspended for two hours on Tuesday night and a number of flights were disrupted as waters inundated the runway and the tarmac. Airport officials said one flight, which had left Colombo this morning, returned.

Twelve trains leaving Chennai Egmore were cancelled due to water overflowing on railway tracks on the Villupuram-Tambaram section. Eleven other trains were diverted.

The Tamil Nadu government has announced a holiday for schools and colleges while most of the factories and offices too closed down.

By Tuesday noon, power supply was suspended in almost 60% of the city locations. With water level rising, several hospitals stopped functioning. Airport operations will resume only after a review meeting by the airport director to assess the safety of runways as water from Adyar river had started entering the runways and parking bays.

While Tuesday’s rain had revealed the devastating impacts on the life of people, hundreds have joined on social media offering help or shelter or food for the affected. One resident in the city offered to recharge the phones of people in distress, another offered a generator in T Nagar, and several messages on Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook offered shelter. The government has formally opened some 40 shelters in the city. Although several educational institutions informally expressed their willingness to share their space for stranded people, lack of effective communication with the government and the corporation prevented the needy from accessing this support. To see the real picture, click on the slideshow.

Hashtags Chennai Rains and Chennai Rains Help are being populated with queries of help, emergency numbers and requests for evacuation.

Meanwhile, heavy rains are likely to continue over Chennai and other areas of Tamil Nadu till Thursday afternoon,according to Skymet.

With heavy rain pounding the city, and a grim forecast ahead, the state government announced that it would postpone half-yearly examinations of all state board schools.

A statement issued by chief minister J. Jayalalithaa said examinations originally scheduled from 7 December onwards will now be held in the first week of January next year. This means that even schools in areas not affected by rain will not have exams until early 2016. Due to the incessant rainfall since Diwali in Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram, schools and colleges have been closed for 21 working days including the Diwali holidays, leading to concerns among teachers about completing the syllabi.

Help at hand

If you are stuck in the Chennai rains, there are certain precautions you must take. Don’t let the current fool you and don’t eat any food that has come in contact with flood waters even once. To read more dos and don’ts, click here.