Sudden downpour surprises office goers in Chennai

Chennai: The sudden opening of the skies around 5 pm took office-goers, students and others out on business in Chennai by surprise as what started as a pleasant day with the sun reappearing, many of the roads relatively parched but for the shallow puddles along the kerbs and the inundated roads and localities showing promises of drying up soon, suddenly turned into a messy evening. Though the even cloudburst stopped after bringing heavy rains for 45 minutes, many places continued to reel under the impact of the North East monsoon’s fury as the work on the construction and repair of the storm water drains had been incomplete, leaving many of the open and the roads around them slushy, posing danger to pedestrians and motorists, particularly two- wheeler riders. Even the work that was progressing expeditiously in clearing the water from the roads and localities, which earned accolades from many people during the day, including DMDK founder Vijayakant who tweeted his appreciation and gratitude to Chief Minister M K Stalin for quick action and for engaging giant pumps, was hit by sudden evening rains. The sunny weather in the morning, however, did not enthuse many people flying to destinations within the State as flights to places like Coimbatore and Madurai were cancelled due to shortage of passengers.