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Heavy rain lashes south India, death toll crosses 100

     Chennai/Vishakhapatnam: Heavy rain and storms paralysed life in southern India on Thursday flooding roads, snapping power and phone lines and disrupting flights as the death toll due to the bad weather this month crossed 100. Tamil Nadu was the worst hit in the latest downpour as many areas in Chennai got inundated and remained cut off, while people waded through waist-high water in some parts of the city. Strong winds uprooted trees and snapped power and phone links in some other parts of the city. "About 50,000 people have been evacuated from low lying areas in Chennai and they have been lodged in relief centres - in marriage halls and in schools. The arrangements are being made by Chennai corporation ... As a back-up measure petromax lamps (lanterns) will be provided to people until the power supply is restored," said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa She said that Chennai had received 27 cm (11 inches) of rain until early Thursday.

    Tamil Nadu and the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have struggled to cope with torrential rain this month. More than 100 people have been killed in the three states, mostly in house collapses or due to electrocution. At least 60 of those deaths occurred in Tamil Nadu, with four new deaths being reported over the last 24 hours. In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the airport of the port city of Visakhapatnam remained closed for the second week as the runway was under water, officials said. At least 35 people have been killed in storms in the state over the past two weeks, they said. Karnataka has sought an aid of five billion rupees from the Centre to carry out relief operations in the state. "We have requested the government of India to release 100,000 rupees as a compensatory amount (for the family of each dead) and apart from that, we are now preparing a memorandum for 500 crore rupees for immediate relief efforts," said MP Prakash, deputy Chief Minister, Karnataka. Police in Karnataka said that seven people had died in Bangalore in accidents triggered by heavy rain and wind this week. Weather officials predicted more rains in the region over the next two days as a severe depression over the Bay of Bengal moved close to the Andhra Pradesh coast.

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