By Devika Krishna Kumar

CHENNAI: The Indian militarystruggled to evacuate thousands of residents stranded in thesouthern state of Tamil Nadu on Thursday as the death toll fromflooding rose to 269 after the heaviest cloudburst in over acentury.

Predictions of incessant rainfall by the weather officemeant that the army had to work on a war footing to rescuesurvivors trapped in inundated parts of Chennai India's fourthmost populous city.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has blamed climate changefor the deluge travelled to Chennai to get a first-hand view ofa rescue effort that has so far been halting.

"Chennai has become a small island. This is unprecedented"Home Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament. "Rapid rescue andrelief is the need of the hour. We are working very hard torestore normality."

After auto manufacturers and IT outsourcing firms suspendedoperations on Wednesday state-run Chennai Petroleum shut down its 210000 barrels per day oil refinery due to theheavy flooding.

There was sporadic rainfall on Thursday after a 24-hourcloudburst dumped as much as 345 mm (14 inches) of rain on thecity earlier this week.

"We live in a city expecting that we will have access tobasic facilities. But today we have no drinking water no freshfood and no control over our lives" said Sudha Raman Murthy a mother of two teenage daughters.

Murthy said parts of her house were under water. She wasusing pots and pans to bail water out of her rooms.

Cut off

Floods cut off more than three million people from basicservices and hampered rescue efforts by the army which has sofar evacuated 18000 people from rooftops and outlying villages.

City authorities were deploying bulldozers and bags ofconcrete to repair collapsed roads while several bridges wereunder water as urban lakes in the low-lying coastal city of sixmillion overflowed.

Train services and flights to Chennai capital of thesouthern state of Tamil Nadu remain cancelled and the navy haspressed fishing boats into service to evacuate people from theworst-hit suburbs to temples schools and wedding halls.

A senior federal official said more than 1000 people hadbeen critically injured and were rushed to government hospitalsby paramilitary forces.

"We want to do everything but the problem is beyond ourcontrol. The airport is flooded train networks have collapsedand the weather is still not conducive" Home Ministry spokesmanKS Dhatwalia said in New Delhi.

Additional rainfall of 100-200 mm (4-8 inches) was predictedfrom Thursday through Sunday meaning the situation could remaincritical for several more days.

The federal government pledged $141 million in immediaterelief and launched a survey to assess losses to life andproperty.

Experts said haphazard construction work faulty drainageand a build-up of garbage has contributed to the flooding.

"Chennai is stinking and it is shocking to see how it hascollapsed in the last 48 hours" said Anant Raghav 56 aprofessor at the University of Madras.

More than 5000 houses were under water with many peoplestill trapped on rooftops while others crowded in relief camps.

About 30 families have been sleeping rough under a flyoverin central Chennai for the last week after their huts and smallconcrete houses were washed away.

Cultural activist V.R. Devika 61 said many people wereoffering free accommodation and home cooking via social media.

"People are giving out food. Those with big vehicles aredriving around rescuing people" she said by telephone.

Reuters