The Indian military evacuated more than 2,000 residents stranded in Tamil Nadu on Thursday as the death toll from flooding rose to 269 after the heaviest cloudburst in over a century.
Forecasts of more rain over the next 48 hours forced the army to work on a war footing to rescue survivors trapped in inundated parts of Chennai, the capital of the southern Indian state.
India’s fourth most populous city saw only slight rains on Thursday, but water levels had not receded since a day earlier, when a massive release of water from a brimming reservoir swamped low-lying areas of the city.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has blamed climate change for the deluge, travelled to Chennai to get a first-hand view of a rescue effort that has so far been halting.
“The government will stand by the people of Tamil Nadu in their hour of need,” Modi told reporters, promising $150m for rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Even as the weather cleared, waters rose in many residential areas, fed by spills from 35 lakes that have risen to dangerous levels. The cloudburst earlier this week dumped as much as 345mm of rain over 24 hours.
Soldiers set up 25 temporary shelters and community kitchens and installed portable toilets. “We will have to resurrect an entire city,” said Abhijit Shaw, an army officer who was setting up a makeshift maternity ward in a government building.
Floods cut off more than three million people from basic services and hampered rescue efforts by the army, which has so far evacuated 18,000 people from rooftops and outlying villages.
City authorities were deploying bulldozers and bags of concrete to repair collapsed roads and bridges.
Train services and flights to Chennai were washed out and the navy has pressed fishing boats into service to evacuate people from the worst-hit suburbs to temples, schools and wedding halls.
A senior federal official said more than 1,000 people had been critically injured and were rushed to government hospitals by paramilitary forces.
Additional rainfall of 100mm to 200mm was predicted from Thursday through Sunday, keeping the situation critical for several more days.
The Indian central government also pledged an additional $141m in immediate relief and began to assess losses to life and property. Assocham, an industry lobby, estimated that financial losses from the floods could exceed $2.25bn.
Experts said haphazard construction, faulty drainage and a build-up of garbage had contributed to the disaster.
More than 5,000 houses were under water with many people still trapped on rooftops, while others crowded in relief camps.
