Residents stranded in Chennai after widespread flooding

A volunteer offers food to a resident after his house got partially submerged following heavy rains due to Cyclone Michaung, in Chennai, India, December 6, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

Rescuers used boats to reach people stranded in their homes amid widespread flooding in India’s Chennai yesterday after cyclone Michaung barrelled into the southern coast, bringing in heavy rain and winds that uprooted trees and damaged roads.
An estimated 13 people, most of them in the manufacturing hub of Tamil Nadu, have died in the flooding that was triggered by the torrential rains that preceded the cyclone, which made landfall in Andhra Pradesh state on Tuesday afternoon.
Rescuers used inflatable rafts and ropes to pluck people out of their homes in Chennai, a city of more than 6mn people and a major automobile and technology manufacturing hub.
Local media showed images of rescue workers wading through waist-deep water and of submerged vehicles. Air force helicopters also dropped food rations to people stranded in flooded homes.
In Andhra Pradesh, which bore the brunt of the cyclone, the damage was relatively contained, with roads damaged and trees uprooted as big waves crashed into the coast.