Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa to undertake aerial survey of flood-hit areas today, IMD says more rains expected

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa will undertake an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas of Chennai city and its suburbs in Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts on Thursday.

A late-night statement issued here by the state government said she wanted to undertake the exercise yesterday but could not do so because of the bad weather and the inability expressed by the pilots.

In the statement, she detailed the various steps taken by the government to tackle the situation in Chennai and other two districts and the relief and rescue operations being conducted.

She also disclosed that various ministers, including O Paneerselvam, have been deputed to take charge of the relief works in different districts.

Senior IAS officials have also been tasked to ensure that relief reaches the people in the worst-affected Chennai and other districts.

Meanwhile, the national weather office predicted three more days of torrential downpours in the southern state of nearly 70 million people.

"There will be no respite," Laxman Singh Rathore of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told reporters.

No deaths were reported in the latest floods, but since heavy rain set in on November 12 there have been 150 deaths in Tamil Nadu. More than 200 people were critically injured over the past 24 hours in Chennai, a senior home ministry official said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has blamed climate change for the deluge, injecting urgency into the debate at global climate talks in Paris and highlighting the vulnerability of tropical nations like India to extreme weather.